When Dr Saikat Gupta of Apollo Gleneagles diagnosed a close relative of mine with breast cancer in matter of minutes, there was a faint trace of satisfaction writ on her face.
It resulted from a strange realization that she was in safe pair of hands so far her treatment was concerned. This was more than 2 years back.
She not only had a successful operation and recovery, she also regained her confidence as if life is as it was before the surgery, which aptly reflects in her poise and determination.
If Dr Gupta has the magical touch of top-of-the-class surgery, Dr Arundhati Chakraborty of the same hospital is the person behind radiotherapy and chemotherapy. She too comes across as a person of great expertise, knowledge, and ability.
The thoughts came flooding as I glanced through today’s (Dec 19) TOI report that a 64-year old woman from UK has just recovered from the surgery of a cancerous tumor in her food-pipe.
The duo of Dr Gupta and Dr Chakraborty attended to the woman, and she is recovering well after undergoing 10-hour surgery on Nov 16.
What is remarkable is that the patient, Shobjan Bibi, a 2-decade resident in UK, was told by the doctors there that the tumor cannot be removed, virtually ruling out even a slim hope of survival.
Shobjan then came to Kolkata with her son Forid Miah for treatment. They are happy they came, and now that Shobjan is recovering well, they will soon fly back to their home in UK knowing that if the UK doctors fail, it doesn’t mean that the road has come to an end.
There are other places where hopes can and do prevail.
My experience with Dr. Saikat Gupta had been horrific. My aunt Tripti Banerjee developed signals of complications starting end of July 2013. She was initially admitted to Diplomat nursing home in Bardhaman under the supervision of Dr. Anirban Mitra. She was diagnosed with stomach ulcers and cysts. She was stabilised and later released and admitted to Durgapur Mission hospital for further tests. The tests revealed that the cysts were cancerous in nature and we ended up with Dr. Saikat Gupta based on a few good words from one of our relatives.
The doctor advised us the get her admitted to BP Poddar hospital as it was relatively cheaper than the Apollo in Kolkata. Within two days based on preliminary investigations he told us that if we do not do the surgery immediately the cancerous cells will spread and the consequences will be devastating. We had to give in to the doctors demand. We were told that the surgery was simple and will be completed within 1-1.5 hours. The expected expenditure including the 3 star hospital stay was around 7.5 – 8 Lacs.
On the day of the surgery which was supposed to start at 14:00 hours the doctor came in at 16:30 hours. Just to give another example of the doctor’s callous attitude. He came out in the midst of the sugery asking whether we could afford 3 staplers worth Rs. 45K each. The surgery ended in 5 hours around 21:30 hours.
She was put in liquid diet inserted by a pipe which goes directly to the intestine bypassing the stomach. After 3 weeks of 3 star hospital stay and a huge hospital bill was met she was released. We were very happy taking her back home.
However, after 5th week she started showing complications. The nozzle pathway inserted was showing signs of rupturing and she was admitted again to the same BP Poddar hospital. By this time it was puja vacation in Bengal and the eminent Dr. Saikat Gupta was on vacation and he could not be reached. Another doctor attended to her and as she was rapidly loosing blood she was given 6 bottles of blood.
On the 20th of October 2013 at 7:45 a.m she passed away as one of the costly 45K staplers could not hold the skin. She died of post operating complications because of an unworthy doctor and not because of cancer.
I wish such people like Dr. Saikat Gupta could be brought to justice.