Sep 07, 2019 10:51 PM
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SAVIOURS or MURDERERS?
This post is published after a month of my Father’s death.
On 24/04/2019 We admitted my Father for lung transplant which was to be undertaken at Apollo Hospital(Greams Road), Post Admission his pre-evaluation was conducted at hospital for 10 days after which the Transplant Team declared him fit for transplant and we were sent home.
After pre-evaluation we were told by Hospital Authorities to get registered for Organ with Government of Tamilnadu & we registered for same(Organ waiting List – Dual Lungs - Blood Group – B Positive).
28/07/2019
Post 2 ½ months of waiting after registration on 28/07/2019 my dad’s oxygen was fluctuating so we decided to admit him to the hospital considering they would be more competent to manage his oxygen saturation(this day being Sunday Transplant coordinator told us that the doctors will be available on next day).
They admitted him to Normal Room and a group of RMOs came and visited dad and in some time, they decided his situation is critical and we need to shift him to ICU room. Within 45 minutes of admission, dad was shifted to ICU. The doctors at ICU told us that they need us to give consent intubation in case of emergency.
29/07/2019
Dad was in ICU for the whole day wherein he was on HFNC(High flow Nasal cannula) and was comfortable and improving. This day Dad met me his daughters, wife, sons and brother. He spoke to everyone properly had his lunch and dinner properly we almost stayed with him for as long as was permissible in ICU.
This was the last day when he spoke to us normally and we tried to comfort him saying all are here soon they will shift him to the normal room. Doctors told there is some improvement. One of us was allowed to feed him and be with him till he fell asleep. After that, 2 family members were allowed to stay in the CCU waiting room and the rest of us left for hotel.
30/07/2019
Later that night exactly at 12.14 AM, We got a call from hospital stating that please come fast. His elder daughter rushed into the room and saw dad sedated and intubated without any written consent from us.
We reached hospital around 12.35 AM when they told we need to shift the patient at MDCCU and immediately took him there. We tried calling our transplant team Pulmonologist who visited dad at home and well aware about his health and anxiety didn’t bother to answer our calls and on back to back try turned off her cell phone. Parallelly we were also trying to call our main doctor under whom we were registered. After several calls our treating physician landed up at hospital. After that dad got his first arrest and was revived by CPR within 20 minutes.
Later Our Primary Doctor and Senior Doctor of MDCCU together with Dr. Priya(Who intubated dad without confirming with our primary doctor and our consent) met the family and told we will be able to comment about his health only after a few Hrs.
Next day morning our primary doctor came to visit dad and told his condition is stable the fear he had regarding organ failure no longer exists. Them same day in afternoon dad met up with second arrest which was revived by CPR within 6 Minutes. While discussion in conference room post this arrest doctors, kept themselves safe by telling us the worst situations what all can happen. i.e(Multiple Organ Failure Etc)
31/07/2019
This was the day when we got to know that he is not passing the necessary amount of urine required and therefore they started continuous CRRT(continuous renal replacement therapy).
01/08/2019
This was the day when we got to know there is an organ available at government hospital Chennai for which our coordinators and team have left to procure. Before undergoing transplant, they wanted to ascertain if the brain function is normal which would require an MRI. Getting an MRI was a very risky option considering the current situation and the level of support system required. For MRI it was mandatory to mobilise from the ICU and hence the nitrous oxide support he was on had to be taken off, and it may cause the Blood pressure to fall significantly/cardiac arrest and other organs to be affected. MRI was supposed to take around 45 min. The Doctors here take sign and consent on all small papers like sedation dosage increase etc, but in this crucial decision, they didn’t even bother to take the consent of family members and took a decision by themselves within 10-15 minutes to put him off the nitrous oxide supply as a trial if he could tolerate it. And 10 min into this trial he had third arrest and again the so-called special team revived by CPR within 3 Minutes – after this arrest doctors told that as he already got 3 arrest post which his kidneys stopped functioning and he had to be put on CRRT(continuous renal replacement therapy) i.e 24 hours continuous dialysis and we are not in a state that we can consider transplant as an option now.
02/08/2019
Now he was on multiple support systems and as the organs were affected and were stable on support systems.
As we were already registered with TNOS and were in waiting list for Lungs we saw our name upgraded to Heart and lungs for this updation also there was no consent taken from our side it was as per will and wish of our primary doctor and transplant coordinator. They informed us about this updation a day later.
Also, the primary doctor under whom we were registered dropped off his name association with dad and later we could see registered under MDCCU team in place of our Primary doctor.
03/08/2019
Around 2 am, they told us about some internal bleeding which was there from late evening previous day but they were unaware from where this internal bleeding is. They were waiting for dad to get normal as in current scenario it was not possible for them to do an endoscopy and diagnose the root cause of this bleeding.
Due to this bleeding his haemoglobin level dropped and his coagulation profile was done which was found to be grossly abnormal. They started transfusing PRBCs and Platelets after our consent(which was taken every single time they transfused).
04/08/2019
Till this day the bleeding continued and they so-called expert doctors were not able to ascertain the sight of bleeding. This day they already transfused 6 units of blood.
With High Dosage of continuous sedation, Dad was responding us by holding hand or responding in some or the other way. Even we proved this to doctor and we were allowed frequent visit in MDCCU by RMO doctor then the shift changed and we saw other RMO unaware about the situation she didn’t allow us to visit and we got stuck.
05/08/2019
Still, the bleeding continued and doctors told us that we are not God, we tried to diagnose and still are not able to find from where this bleeding is as we can’t undergo endoscopy.
06/08/2019
This was the day when his blood pressure was fluctuating and his sedation was increased. We were able to see very little bleeding even from his eyes. We asked doctors but still, their answers were the same.
This was the day dad was not even responding to us, this was due to heavy dosage of sedation. Around 4 pm, his BP started dropping and we tried calling doctors of the CCU and they bluntly refused to do anything and entering his room saying everything needed has been done. They also put him off sedation and refused to intervene. But we couldn’t lose hope and kept keeping a watch. His oxygen and BP started improving and we were still hopeful
07/08/2019
At midnight around 1.30 am he got fourth arrest and revival was tried by CPR they tried for 10 minutes and on our insistence tried again for 10 more minutes and then finally gave up and couldn’t revive him.
