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Health Day slap for doctors: child patient flees hospital

By Rajesh Kumar, Section Health
Posted on Thu Apr 07, 2005 at 10:19:44 PM EST

Fear of flawed treatment forced a two-and-a-half-year-old girl and her mother to flee SSKM Hospital early on World Health Day. The two were terrified that something would go wrong in a procedure, scheduled a few hours later on Thursday, to remove peanuts stuck in the child's bronchus.

For the past three months, doctors at NRS Medical College and Hospital had subjected little Munni to several painful clinical examinations but failed to diagnose the problem.

She was admitted to SSKM on Wednesday afternoon, after being referred there by NRS with a suspected "vegetarian foreign body" lodged in her chest. Munni and her mother told fellow patients during the night that they had lost all faith in doctors.

"The child spent three months at NRS, undergoing tests, CT scan, chest X-rays and even a painful air drain for suspected nimothorax (entrapment of air in and around the lungs). All that because some peanuts were stuck in her bronchus," said ENT surgeon at SSKM Arunavo Sengupta.

Around four months ago, Munni had developed breathing trouble and was also catching a cold frequently, prompting her parents to take her to a local hospital near their residence at Krishnagar, in Nadia district. She was prescribed cough syrups and tablets, and sent home.

A local doctor referred her to NRS. Munni was admitted to the cardio-thoracic department. After several X-rays and a CT scan, doctors diagnosed her case as suspected nimothorax and proceeded to drain air out of her right lung by piercing it with a needle. The problems persisted. Last week, chest specialists subjected Munni to another round of tests, before concluding that a foreign body could be lodged in her lungs.

Around 1 pm on Wednesday, Sengupta received a call from the chest department. "The girl was pale and clearly terrified," recalled surgeon and associate professor Uday Sarkar. "An early morning bronchoscopy was planned to remove the peanuts. I tried to convince Munni and her parents that nothing could go wrong, but they seemed very afraid," added Sengupta. On Thursday morning, they slipped out of SSKM unnoticed.

http://www.telegraphindia.com/1050408/asp/calcutta/story_4586982.asp

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