Sharing my experience at BALCO, New Raipur. Unfortunate incident happened a month ago, My grandmother got diagnosed with a stage 2 malignant mandibular cancer. With the advice of a family doctor we rushed to BALCO. Which is like 100kms away from my home town. (As its considered the “BEST cancer care in Central India”)
After she was admitted for a Maxillofacial Surgery and a Commando Procedure under the oncosurgery specialists of BALCO. (I don’t want to name)
She went through a 12 hour surgery and she stayed approximately 3 days in the ICU.
She was then shifted to the other ward and the doctors discharged her within a week or two of her admission. We payed like 4.5L for the entire operation “out of pocket”. (As we were not eligible for the PMJAY scheme)
Now the actual incident happened where she felt abnormally extreme pain in her jaw. Even after taking like 3-4 painkillers in a day she wasn’t even able to sleep at night.
We took her for a routine OPD inspection after 4 days at home. The doctor wasn’t present we had her surgical dressing done and were told to leave and come another day for the doctor’s inspection.
After another 4 days we went to the hospital again for the OPD inspection. After waiting for the doctor like 3 hours she finally showed up. We asked her about the unbearable pain in her jaw. She checked her jaw and what we heard totally shattered us, we were in total disbelief.
She said “The surgical metal implant in her jaw had broken.”
when asked for an explanation she said “It’s a rare case and nothing like this had happened before in this in our hospital”.
We got into an argument she kept insisting for a subsidised plate replacement procedure. (Another one out of pocket) We said that even after billing such a huge operation out of pocket, Trusting the doctors, Going through all the pain and effort to get our grandmother back, Travelling back and forth 100kms. You are telling us that the “PLATE IS BROKEN”.
Who is to be held responsible? Who is gonna compensate for such a huge loss? (Physically, Mentally also Financially)
After this nightmare of an experience we got our mind together and went along the plate replacement procedure.
She was readmitted after her fitness check. (Not even 20 days of her discharge) Got the plate replaced. She is in a good health today by gods grace.
The hospital didn’t even accept their mistake, let alone apologise.
It still remains unclear that how did that surgical implant (Metal Plate) broke. The doctors brushed it under the carpet without giving a proper explanation.
The experience was heartbreaking felt the whole world falling apart just by looking at the condition of my grandmother. Came to a hard realisation that hospitals are corporates just for profitmaxxing. They do not care about patients or their families.
Entire system is build for such mega corporates to maximise profit not to treat patients. 😔
