THOUBAL, August 4: Amidst the growing mistrust against doctors for their alleged lack of dedication and casual approach while treating patients and performing surgical operations which have resulted in the death of many people, family members of a 66 year old woman are fuming after a three feet long bandage was found in her stool. They have asked the government to enquire into the matter and take strict actions against the doctors who did not discharge their duties properly in a press meet today.
The 66-year-old is identified as Thangjam Ongbi Tombimacha Devi, wife of Pishak from Tentha Khunou Awang Leikai in Thoubal District.
In the press meet, Nilo (Tombimacha’s son) gave an account of how his mother underwent two operations at two different hospital, and at the end of her ordeal, she defecated a three feet long bandage. He said his family is not sure at what stage or from which hospital the bandage got into the intestine of her mother.
Give a blow by blow account of the ordeal his family went through he said: “My mother went to consult the doctors at the Langol View and Charitable Clinic on April 22. She was admitted at the same hospital the next day and Dr Joykumar, a surgeon, removed kidney stones from her gall bladder on April 24 at around 11 am. She was discharged from the hospital on April 29 and was advised to come for check-up after a month.”
The condition of the patient( Tombimacha) did not improve at all as she continued to feel lethargic and queasy, he said, and after waiting for a month, the patient went for a check up on May 31 and again on July 7 for the second check-up.
Nilo said that despite informing the doctors of his mother’s condition, they kept assuring him that nothing would happen.
“After my mother’s health deteriorated, she was again admitted to the hospital on July 16 where Dr Amitkumar took an ultra sound and informed me of his suspicion about my mother’s case to be of Cancer. He referred the case to RIMS the same day and after bearing a lot of pain, my mother was admitted to RIMS the next day,” he said.
According to Nilo, Dr Ranita performed an operation on his mother on July 19 and took out a few cells for testing which was sent to the Babina Diagnostic Centre.
The Doctors at RIMS advised him to take his mother home as the test results showed that his mother was suffering from hernia and was in her last state after the formation of tumours.
Tombimacha was discharged from the hospital without any medical prescriptions on July 30.
However after Tombimacha defecated a three feet long bandage on Saturday, her furious family members informed the people and the local Pradhan about the incident.
Nilo said that after defecating out the bandage, his mother’s condition has improved a lot.
Stating that as two operations were performed in different hospitals, one can’t be sure where the bandage exactly got inside his mother’s body, Nilo, however, stressed that the incident only validates of the lackadaisical attitudes of doctors towards their patients.
This is not the first time where such incidents have occurred and the government needs to step in and take stern actions against the malingering doctors who don’t care about the lives of poor patients by teaching them a befitting lesson, he added.
Nilo said that he will file a police complaint against those doctors who gave a lot of misery to his family and his mother especially by erroneously diagnosing a grave ailment when it was certainly not the case.
