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Stories of Change

Every Life Is Precious

Does Healthcare Need Healing?

 
 
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  •   “Aamir Khan ki dukaan”

    “Aamir Khan ki dukaan”

    That’s what some people call the newly opened generic medicine stores in Nagpur

  •   Not just environmentalists

    Not just environmentalists

    Afzal and Nusrat Khatri also educate people about the benefits of generic medicines

  •   Doctor without borders

    Doctor without borders

    Dr Samit Sharma takes the generic medicine revolution beyond Rajasthan’s borders

   
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    You can help make medicines more affordable

    Play your part in making medicines more affordable—open a generic medicines shop or spread awareness about generic medicines

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    To the Parliament...
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    NGO YOU SUPPORTED: HUMANITY HOSPITAL

    NGO YOU SUPPORTED: HUMANITY HOSPITAL

    Healthcare for the poor

    In the wilds of the Sunderbans, where few doctors go, is Humanity Hospital. Serving people from both sides of the India-Bangladesh border, its main aim is to ensure that no one, however poor, is denied healthcare. From being a tent with a cabinet full of medicines, it has upgraded to being a full-fledged hospital.

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    NGO YOU SUPPORTED: HUMANITY HOSPITAL
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    Your Story

    Read experiences shared by viewers

     

    If he got late night calls from patients he would rush them to the hospital so that he could get a hefty cut… But what I felt most about was that i kept quiet and actually served dinner after hearing this. I think it is equally imp for the public to speak up, and that night i didn't. And he also said that night that this is a good setup for him bcos he also has to put his son thru medical college in a few years!!!!!

    Aamir, love your show. I wanted to share my experience after watching the last episode about doctors. We are ex-pat and last year we had a family visiting from India. The husband is a doctor, a friend of my husband and we invited them for dinner one night. As we were sitting around talking he just casually mentioned that ever since they decided to come on this holiday all he did was if he got late night calls from patients he would rush them to the hospital so that he could get a hefty cut and then tell the doctors there to give the poor patient a few bottles of Glucose and do some tests and send him home in 2 days. And he was actually bragging about it. Like you said in your show this is the general practice amongst doctors. But what I felt most about was that i kept quiet and actually served dinner after hearing this. I think it is equally imp for the public to speak up, and that night i didn't. And he also said that night that this is a good setup for him bcos he also has to put his son thru medical college in a few years!!!!! The nerve of these doctors!!!!Bloody maut ke Saudagars!! And AAmir, keep up the good work, you have our support in spirit. SOME PEOPLE WILL LOVE YOUR COURAGE, SOME PEOPLE WILL HATE YOUR GUTS .........BUT NOONE CAN IGNORE WHAT YOU ARE DOING. So lage Raho Aamirbhai......Kudos to you

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    Realizing that educating the consumer was essential, he launched an individual tireless effort of over a decade leading to the web portal, www.medguideindia.com that provides free information on cheaper equivalents for brand medicines. website has detailed information on nearly 90000 drugs,including the generic composition ,comparitive prices of different brands of same genericamanufactured/marketed in india and details of manufacturer.

    Insert Message my husband late Dr. Mittal noticed that the cancer of greed, corruption, and nepotism was spreading in the medical establishment. The nexus of pharmaceutical companies, doctors, and hospitals was exploiting patients by making them buy expensive drugs. Realizing that educating the consumer was essential, he launched an individual tireless effort of over a decade leading to the web portal, www.medguideindia.com that provides free information on cheaper equivalents for brand medicines. website has detailed information on nearly 90000 drugs,including the generic composition ,comparitive prices of different brands of same genericamanufactured/marketed in india and details of manufacturer. He then expanded the website to help consumers make educated decisions about medical insurance and immunization. This free website, the only one of its kind worldwide, has become an essential tool for medical consumers, both patients and doctors alike, and gets lakhs of hits every month. It has got unsolicited coverage from major TV and news organizations. Towards the last stages of his life, he again showed the vision to combine social and technological changes by providing the same website on a mobile platform as well as providing the durg section as a free SMS service. dr.mrs. savita mittal email id svt.mittal@gmail.com

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    She was being treated like a guinea pig with experimental medication, drug after drug with no result. Her condition became critical and unstable with the family watching her helplessly and living under inhuman stress of seeing a loved one leaving her life gradually.

    Ela Tiwari
    B-1/2-69 Sector K
    Aliganj Lucknow UP

    I have no desire to pursued any case nor I am looking for compensations, My only wish is to update and let people be aware about Hospital Horrors in India. There is a lack of absolute accountability in health care system in India. I am a Canadian citizen and Physicians do commit errors in US and Canada as well, but sense of responsibility is present in addition Physicians does not act like criminals.

    Ever since, I have discussed with Dr Amit Gupta, SGPGI about unprofessional ethics of Nephrologist Dr Debashish Saha, I am getting anonymous phone threats until this date. These callers are unknown to me as phone numbers and their CALLERS are nameless nevertheless the Police have indentified few names of callers and at least three phone numbers belongs to Doctors IN LUCKNOW.

    On September 24th 2010, my 84 year Mother suffered a mild TIA (Brain stroke) which passed by itself with in 2 hours. Following the stroke she was taken to the Awadh Heart Hospital 9 Singar Nagar Alambagh, Lucknow UP, for CT Scan, MRI and other tests for proper diagnosis. The diagnosis, a mild TIA, with no traces of clotting in the brain. The medications were given by the neurologist Dr Ratish Kumar from Awadh Heart Hospital 9 Singar Nagar Alambagh Lucknow UP, until next check up. With in three days a reaction to medication developed and she developed severe constipation, when I called her physician Dr. Sushil Gattani, partner of Awadh Heart Hospital who also has been treating her since past seven years, he asks me to administer 20 ml of enema, this resulted into chronic diarrhoea and severe electrolyte imbalance, a renal failure hazard to a Chronic Kidney Disease patient.

    Once more on the October 2th 2010, I got my mother admitted to Awadh Heart Hospital 9 Singar Nagar Alambagh, Lucknow UP, for chronic diarrhoea and electrolyte imbalance. After getting admitted she was administered 2000 ml of I.V. at the infusion rate of 100 ml. of Glucose, saline and potassium fluid with in two hours, and was released the same day.

    On the October 3rd 2010 around noon she started getting breathless and by 8 PM in the evening was unable to breathe. Her condition was severely affecting the vital centers in the brain and disruption of regulatory activities that are carried out by the brain with shortness of breath, wheezing , high blood pressure and a widened pulse pressure. I call the Family physician Dr. Sushil Gattani again , and updates him, over the phone he informs me that my Mother is having a Heart Attack and I need to admit her immediately. In the mean time I was asked to give her an intravenous injection of Dytor and Deryphyllin. With in minutes we rushed her to hospital and she was readmitted to ICCU. After all the tests, ECG and ECO she was diagnosed as having a Heart Attack.

    We stayed in the hospital ICCU for 14 days under the impression that she suffered a heart attack. Her condition deteriorated from bad to worse her electrolyte imbalance reached its peak and renal functions deteriorated due to persistent diarrhoea since last 14 days.

    She was being treated like a guinea pig with experimental medication, drug after drug with no result. Her condition became critical and unstable with the family watching her helplessly and living under inhuman stress of seeing a loved one leaving her life gradually. At this point internist Dr. Kumar (Awadh Heart Hospital 9 Singar Nagar Alambagh, Lucknow UP ) informs me us that soon there could be seizures, irreversible brain damage, coma and eventual death. On the other hand the only Nephrologist, present at that hospital, Dr. Debashish Saha seemed to be at a total loss to understand her critical condition.

    When Dr Sushil Gattani, returns from a vacation we have a discussion and he informs us, for the first time that my mother needs a Pacemaker immediately. At this point I decide to consult another Nephrologist Dr Amit Gupta from SGPGI in the city and decide to transfer my Mother immediately to SGPGI Raibareilly Road Lucknow U.P. on October 17th 2010. The nightmare does lessens here. At the time of admission she was , Suffering from chronic diarrhoea, severe electrolyte imbalance, an renal failure.

    At, SGPGI Raibareilly Road Lucknow UP , a junior Resident informs us that she needs to go for an Angioplasty with in a week. Although Dr. Aditya Kapoor, Senior Cardiologist (at SGPGI Lucknow UP), over rules it and upon examination finds that she NEVER SUFFERED HEART ATTACK IN PAST FIVE YEARS , hence No requirement of a PACEMAKER EITHER.

    Much later we learnt that my Mother suffered from symptoms of Heart Attack because of over dose and flooding of Fluid in the body, the lungs were unable to take so much of glucose, saline and potassium through Intra venous. Although, Pulmonary Edema is equally dangerous for an elderly patient.

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    Have you ever heard a doctor to drop his patients home in his personal car????? Dr. Ahmed does... he asks each and every late night patient if he has a conveyance to go back home...

    dear Aamir sir... with reference to today's episode on medical and health related issues in india, i would really like to share with you the story of a doctor who is a truest professional and who lives for the patients... today, after knowing all the dirty facts about the medical facilities and the doctors, now i really feel proud that we have got the best doctor (what i will call him definitely) in the country inspite of being in the farthest and the mostly ignored portion of india (a small place in the district Karimganj in Assam)...

    Dr. Iman Ali Ahmed is a Govt. general practitioner and is presently the SDM&HO at Patharkandi Public Health Centre... It is an unending story to start, so i will just make u aware of a few of the qualities of this doctor and the best human being i have ever come across...

    The story of Dr. Ahmed is that he is a kind of doctor who has dedicated the entire life of his to the service of people... He starts his day with the patients at 9 in the morning in the hospital and finishes (or we can say 'takes a break) at not before 2 at night at his residence (which is so called 'Chamber' just for namesake).. When Dr. Ahmed is available in the hospital, all the other doctors just waits for a case while Dr. Ahmed's chamber already becomes overcrowded with more than hundreds of patients waiting in the queue... it is because he treats his patients like family members and does his best to help out the poor villagers...

    At this age of time when doctors at our towns (even the same hospital where he works) doctors charge their visiting fees ranging from Rs. 300 to 500, Dr. Ahmed continues with his visiting fees ranging from Rs. 10 to Rs. 50 per visit (if the patient offers, or else no comments or no demands at all)... There are lots of instances where the patient expresses his inability to give a fee, the doctor offers him money from his pocket to buy medicine and in most cases, he provides them with the sample medicines which the medical companies give him... he doesnt allow a majority of patients to buy medicines, instead he hmself provides with medicine… Have you ever heard a doctor to drop his patients home in his personal car????? Dr. Ahmed does... he asks each and every late night patient if he has a conveyance to go back home... Since the patients are mostly poorer and they come from very far places, sometimes patients have no clue as to how they should reach bback home, Dr. Ahmed always makes them dropped in his own car...

    Those instances are a very few among a lot of other instances where we see the greatness of this doctor despite a lot of ups and downs in his personal as well as professional life... I would like to suggest the entire unit of SJ to look for such people around the country and invite them to the show so that every indian should see how these people are contributing their part to the service of the poor and underprevileged....

    Thanking you...

    (Saadique)
    ahmed.saadique@gmail.com

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    I see generic medicine shops as one of the most effective way of reaching out to the each and every person in a bid to make healthcare more and more affordable for all.

    Way to go aamir, yes you have been able to shake up all our souls and given us real food for thought. I see generic medicine shops as one of the most effective way of reaching out to the each and every person in a bid to make healthcare more and more affordable for all. As a start, I offer to give out my shop in Nagpur without any rent if such a center can be opened up there.

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    My sister was unable to open her eye due to constant watering and itching. When she did force herself to open it, she realised that she was unable to see a thing.

    My sister is only 20 years old and studies Hotel Management in Mumbai. Just over a year ago, she had a minor eye infection common among people who use contact lens. Even though she was to go to our hometown, Sangli the next day, she went to see the doctor as the irritation and itching in her eye was annoying. She went to see a "senior doctor" in a "reputed hospital" in Mumbai. He prescribed her eye drops that she was to use in her eye every 20 minutes. The next day just 2-3 hours before her train timing, she went to the doctor again as her condition hadn't improved. On seeing her eye, the doctor panicked and told her to be admitted to another hospital. She was taken there by her classmates. My parents were informed and they reached Mumbai overnight. By then she was unable to even open her eye. The hospital she was moved to asked her what medicine she had taken. When she mentioned "Toba D", they were like, "Are you sure?” That is when she showed the prescription and they were like..."This is a steroid and you shouldn't have taken it."...I thought, “Right, this is so common that every common man knows that they shouldn't take "Toba D" as it's a steroid". The other doctor asked my parents to be ready and said that the infection had worsened, the wrong medicine had aggravated it and the bacteria was eating her cornea and she might need a corneal transplant. My sister was unable to open her eye due to constant watering and itching. When she did manage to open her eye after a week, to her utter shock...there was no black part in her eye. Her entire eye looked white. She was unable to see a thing. The nightmare continued for a month till the doctor in our hometown declared her free of infection. But the scar left was on her lens which took away her vision. She even wrote a letter to the doctor who gave her the wrong medicine; but he chose not to respond. We have been trying to file a case, but it's difficult as no doctor would testify on paper that the medicine given was wrong although every other doctor was shocked that she was given steroids in her first appointment itself. (Apparently steroids are administered when no other medicines work. But she wasn't even given a chance to use simpler medicines.) I understand the plight of other doctors. Giving her in writing that the medication was wrong, means alienating oneself from the doctor community and losing all help in case something like this is accidentally done by another doctor. But that doesn't make the anger and frustration we feel any less. This week she had a partial corneal transplant and we all hope that she will start seeing again. But we know that 100 percent recovery is not possible. The operation cost 66,000 Rupees. I would like to bring your attention to this issue and express my sheer hatred, anger and frustration at the inhuman doctor who didn't think twice before doing this to a young girl or who didn't show one bit of regret or respect to a patient who lost vision because of him. I'd respect him a little even if he had bothered to respond. We have suffered enough anyway. All we expected was at least some concern and a reply. But probably this is what the doctor is used to and chose indifference over duty and basic human decency. All i can say is, it takes a lot of good fortune to find a good doctor; not just in terms of qualifications but also human emotions.

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    I am working as Product manager in pharmaceutical company in marketing department & thus i know more truth about this healthcare industry. In today's scenario most of the consultant Drs are greedy. All big pharmaceutical companies are corrupt.

    I am working as Product manager in pharmaceutical company in marketing department & thus i know more truth about this healthcare industry. In today's scenario most of the consultant Drs are greedy. All big pharmaceutical companies are corrupt. All top brands are prescribed 4 money. Best way to give money to Drs is to give prepaid gifts cards of many banks which can be loaded with any amount you want.....5K to 5 Lac & MCI will not get any clue with this activity from Pharma Company. Chemist shops are handled & operated by Drs relative which further exploit the pharma professional for commission. 2500 Rs mai chemist shop ka license rent pe mil jata hai. Pharmacist aapna chemist shop ka license ek 10 fail aadmi ko bhi de de te hai jiske pas shop dalne ka paise hai . Amir bhai as a product manager we say only premium priced brand can become top brand in pharmaceutical industry because all extra money goes in Drs pocket that why they prescribe brands & it sales in market but at the end patient has to bear the cost of this. 55000 cr pharmacutical industry mai se 15000 Cr direct doctoro ke jeb mai jata hai.
    Regards, Mukund

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    As far as my clinics go I always tell my therapist that if you do not maintain ethics do not work with me. I do not advertise much and god is providing my every need.

    You have touched a subject that is close to my heart ....corruption in healthcare. I am a healthcare professional in the field of physiotherapy (trained in the USA and have a few clinics setup in Hyderabad with the aim of providing the best therapy services irrespective of the amount of fees they pay. As far as my clinics go I always tell my therapist that if you do not maintain ethics do not work with me. As you know the state of health care today is that you pay and get your patients. I am really reluctant to do business with people’s lives so my clinics are at loss right now but still I am very happy and content to say that I am a satyameva jay ate clinic. I do not pay any doctors. I do not advertise much and god is providing my every need. The main reason that I do not like to partner with doctors is that I have to succumb to their decisions and diagnosis even if they are wrong. Many times they are wrong.

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