Since last 2 days my mom was not feeling very well, so I decided to take her to the hospital. I was skeptical about taking her to the hospital and wanted to avoid it because here going to the hospital is very painful. They will not let you go back home again so easily. But at the same time considering she is 79, I did not have much of a choice as she was having a severe cough. She was down with viral infection.
Yesterday I took her to the hospital and as expected it was a nightmare. When we went there, the doctor refused to give any medication without doing a series of test, some of which were not even relevant like a kidney function test. The Doctor asked us about her medical history and we told him, so based on that he told us to do all the medical test. We told him also, that why can't he focus on treating her flu symptoms, but he did not want to listen. Then he told us that it would be a day affair at the hospital as he would put her on a drip. So then we first got all the series of test that he suggested and then in the day care they put her on IV.
After an hour or so the doctor told the sister to shift her in the normal hospital room. That time I knew that this was leading to something very different, so I told the nurse that I am not going to pay for the hospital room and nor do I have any intention of admitting her in the hospital. If the Doctor cannot treat her for her flu then we will like to take her home. I made some noise, and then they assured me that they will not admit her. After that through out the day, they gave some injections and I was doing all the up and down from billing to pharmacy and all.
In the evening the Doctor came, and he told me her infection level is high. So I told him, that's obvious because she has flu and that was expected. So then he said, no you have to admit her in the hospital, and I was adamant that No, I will not, for quite some time he kept on arguing me. I could see that first he was mild talking to me and then his tone changed like threatening type. He then told me that I need to sign the declaration form and everything that if something happens to her then I am responsible. It was very painful to go through this ordeal, but then I also realized that if I would admit her, they will start doing things on her which would not be needed.
I was just wanting to step out of the hospital with mom somehow. Because getting admitted was like a trap. During the day, what all they did gave me a good idea of how they would treat her once admitted. Just in a span of 8 hours they gave me a bill of 300$ (25k INR) for a treatment of flu. So you can imagine that if I would get her admitted what all they would do. They tried in every possible way to get her admitted, by giving me emotional talks, by threatening me, by being polite and when I did not agree, I could see the frustration on the Doctor's face. I told the Doctor, that I will take her back to India but not get her admitted here, so all the more he felt bad because I assume his ego must have got hurt.
Hospitals here have targets for Doctors and when they achieve these targets they get good incentives, so it's not surprising that they would do such things. Specially with vulnerable people like my mom, who is very old.
Today she is not feeling very good, but still better then yesterday.
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