Fell down stairs in Delhi... hospital, casts, etc.

Gardener972

Yes, it was the afternoon of my last day there, January 19. The next thing I knew, I was rolling down the steps of Jama Masjid in Delhi. After about an hour I KNEW it was more than a bump down the stairs... excruciating pain! After a hospital visit & X-rays, I left with a cast on my R arm & R foot for the airport, headed back to the U.S. It was a broken elbow, sprained ankle, small fracture & bad bone bruise to the R knee. Here it is almost June, arm is working again, foot is fine, knee is and still in an unloader brace and I'm just now able to walk a bit in a small grocery store. Imagine that happening my FIRST day there? Ever think what might happen if you were there for an extended visit and something like that happened? What are/were your hospital experiences?

Zeppy

We had something similar (though less dramatic). See "Radiology , x-ray technology, orthopedics" thread.

Darmabum

. . . in China? . . . until there's ChinaMike (and since I've started this way, I'm goin') . . . in '85 flew from Chengdu (@200m) to Lhasa (@4000m) in an hour and a half. Took it easy the first few days, worrying about that quick a transition from low to high altitude. In a few days I was plodding up the steps of the Potatla, had a hard time keeping up with old Tibetan ladies, but besides that, everything was fine . . . except, my mouth. All of my teeth hurt. Ten days later, back to Chengdu. And then my teeth really hurt. Went into a Chinese dentist - he speaking Mandarin, me, English only. He eventually agreed with my take on it: the air in the fillings in my mouth had compressed at 4000m, and now that air was expanding again, "inflating" that same air space. Three years in India and not a hospital story to share, never been sick or hurt there (praise Shiva )

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04274108

Sorry to hear of your misfortunes Gardener972. It sounds as though you are on the mend okay? How did you find your treatment at the hospital?

What was the experience like? I doubt many here have had to use medical facilities in India. Anything you can share (both good and bad) would be most useful in case it happens to us.

Get well soon.

Gardener972

I must say that my treatment was good though not accurate. They didn't see the wide open break or the blood pooling around the bone seen as a shadow (that would indicate a break in the bone) at the hospital. The doctor spoke excellent English so communication was OK although the other staff (X-ray, nurses) spoke limited English. The X-ray machine looked like something out of the 50's. The hospital itself was NOT clean--hallways, rooms, sheets. The water that the casting material was soaked in (old technology) had things floating in it. I was sent of without pain meds of any kind. Fortunately the airplane had aspirin.

My treatment at the airport was excellent. I was wheeled everywhere in a wheelchair by the airport staff, taken to the front of the line, etc. Once on the plane, I was almost kicked off as they didn't want the responsibility of me (bloodclot possibility?). My treatment at the layover in Newark, New Jersey was horrible. Continental airlines does differ from one country to another.

I'm on the mend, slowly. Hopefully, I'll be able to walk around India again one day. That's my goal.

04274108

Thanks for sharing you insight. Best wishes and I look forward to meeting somewhere on the road and buying you a Kingfisher!

Nick-H

Were you treated at a government hospital? The lack of cleanliness makes it sound as if you were. Only yesterday my [Indian] wife was saying that hygiene is one of the things you have to pay for here, the more you pay the more you get.

So far I have no experience of setting foot inside a government hospital. Yesterday Mrs N and visited a friend undergoing chemo-therapy at Chennai's Cancer Institute (I think this is govt owned). She was in a private AC room. It was sparse and basicly equipped: bed, couch couple of chairs, table, shelves, own toilet. It was clean. The room cost is Rs1,000 a night.

A couple of months ago we visited another friend, sufferring from Chickungunya, in a charity hospital. This time in a public ward. It was just like a UK ward from the 1950s, but again, was clean. There was no AC and no protection from mosquitoes flying in. Cost (IIRC) Rs.85 a night.

We have consulted specialists at Apollo Hospital (the 'five-star' among private hospitals). This can cost Rs.400 or Rs500 (imagine needing to be seen by several doctors daily, this would mount up very quickly). Of course, the hospital generally is clean, and the equipment modern, but I would say that, nowhere in India, in any profession, will you find Health and Safety standards that have become a norm in the 'West'.

These top private-hospital consultants are often dividing their time between India and UK. So, if they make a mistake, chances are you could have had the same mistake made by the same doc in a British hosp.

Most doctors in private practice that I've met here are pretty good, though you do come accross some that are very mercenary. Visiting them will cost around Rs100 to Rs300. Poorer people will go to doctors that cost as little as Rs10 or Rs15. My wife prefers her Rs15 doc to my Rs100 doc: they both spend time each year working in UK hospitals. She will have to sit in a queue of twenty people, I will have to sit in a queue of two or three --- but my doc may spend 30 minutes with a patient.

Having said that my doc charges Rs100 --- actually he seldom asks me for any money at all!

---Just some random observations and thoughts about hospitals here in Chennai.

Hope you are fully recovered soon

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shashank.aggarwal

Hygiene Depends from hospital to hospital, the medical facility in India are extremely good I am sure that you are aware of increasing trend of Medical Tourism. Treatment is very cheap over here as compared to west, and the infrastructure is very strong (atleast for those who can afford it)..

you will be surprised to know that India has largest hospitals (as in capacity) in the world outside of US.

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ploink

Been to a -private- hospital in Phalodi/Khichan (Thar, Rajasthan) for one night which was ... basic - I can only imagine what a government hospital would have been like. Not that I tried to imagine it there - I was pretty much "out" of it; I had fallen from a camel, been on a ... trip ... because of painkillers and other medicine, caught pneumonia (had already met two doctors, one in Jaisalmer, one in Phalodi). My hosts wanted to take me to their office/home in Jodhpur rather than let me stay there for another night - I just didn't get better there, so I ended up in the Apollo in Delhi. The bills ran to about 80 000 rupees in total, I think, of which about 40 000 was for the 6-day visit to the Apollo Hospital to Delhi - which was like.... wow. They sure fixed me well enough there; I was actually able to return to Jodhpur for a few days, taking it very nice and easy.

And, yes, I had travel insurance - which also covered the Jodhpur-Delhi-Jodhpur flight. The Apollo bill we (me & Mr. ploink) didn't need to pay ourselves in India, but all the rest, yes, which was such a drain on our budget. Of course the insurance later covered the rest of our "losses".

How lucky you were that it was your last day and that you didn't hurt yourself "too much" - that you were able to return home on your planned last day! Speedy, full recovery to you! (My back still hurts now and then, and it's been two and half years.)

Oh, I was there to visit an NGO that works in the Thar. We were in India for five weeks; it had been a week when I fell from the camel and the trouble really started.

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nosianai

Hospitals, my personal nightmare. During my first visit to Bangalore in 2001 I've actually been to a govt hospital in Jayanagar. Never found out which mysterious illness was bothering me that time, but since it disappeared just as magically as it had come, nobody really bothered - including me. I was just glad to have survived the hospital. The cleanliness is one point but this congregation of really really poor people with very visible, very scary diseases literally camping all over the place is another reason I'd never want to go back to such a place. It was sad. You want to shoo them all away, these people with nasty liquids dripping from their bodies, and you feel like the last ass for being so disgustingly arrogant.

Later I've been to Manipal hospital in Bangalore. It's private, it's popular, it's much better. But i always had the feeling that there is a severe lack of interest among the doctors, that is, once you've paid the consultation fees (300 to 500) you might as well bugger off. The Apollo's were great, though.

In Delhi it's a different story altogether. I was appalled by the Apollo in Indraprastha. The doctor was a moron. He ordered 4 x-rays to be done of my husband, but something went wrong with the billing and they did only 3. Then the doctor asked us which x-ray was missing. He seriously did not know and called up the x-ray-dept. We grabbed our x-rays and left!

I'd recommend the Fortis Hospitals in Delhi. They are good, but once they've sent you for all the expensive diagnoses (that's just what they do in India), you need to follow up with them. They quickly lose interest. But it is sparkling clean, the equipment is the latest and they've got lots of specialists. Quite satisfied.

Till this date, however, I couldn't find a really good dentist. I mean reaaaly good. One who doesn't dig around in my mouth (you pay per filling) for the fun and money of it. Any recommendations?

Indianworker

Nosianai,

There has been a thread on dentists in delhi. My landlord is a dentist and I have been to him on many occasions for toothache and filling replacements. I have been very happy with the service I have got and would not consider going elsewhere but as I say there have been other recommendation on this site.

My dentist is Dr Kalra and his number is 011 41745130 (delhi number). He has 2 practices in Delhi and his wife has one and his son is also a dentist and orthodontist.

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Zeppy

Interesting parallel in our case. The Indian orthopedist saw a broken bone on an x-ray that was later declared "fuzzy" by a U.S. orthopedist. The patient got a cast, and limped around India in it, but there was never any of the swelling and bruising that supposedly makes a broken bone hard to misdiagnose. The thing was judged a sprain, not a break, in the U.S.

Lugubert

The steps can be bad enough, especially if there's a crowd, but I think that the number of accidents from falling in the stairs leading to the observation platform in the one open tower is kept secret. Torch/flashlight for the staircase and perfect sense of balance for the annular micro platform highly recommended.
Private hospital in Mussoorie. Delhi belly. The very up to date doc (I had been in the pharma business for several years) took the necessary tests, no more, and then had me have assorted I.V. infusions for eight hours, started and rather continuously supervised by a sufficiently competent nurse? technician? in, say, his late twenties.

I should mention the bill. Tiny. I didn't even bother to check if a part of it could be covered by my travel insurance, and I'm not rich by any definition.

When I was released in a perfectly cured state, the doctor sent me to one of the better restaurants in town to get some food proteins to supplement the bottled ones I received, with an accompanying letter to the head waiter, asking them to take extra good care of me. They rather did, despite not being licensed for beer.

paul9018

When in Mount Abu in march 2005, I was woken up at 2 AM by a Dutchman who stayed in the room next to me : he was folded in two by excruciating pains in his lower belly. The owner of the lodge advised us not to go to the gov. hospital, but to the private clinic of the Kanyakumari "sect"; it is accessible to everyone, not only to devotees.
The hospital was modern and extremely clean (as clean as a western hospital) and has all the facilities (even a MRI-scan) with western en Indian doctors (both western and ayurvedic medecine).
The nightdoctor in charge made a preliminary diagnosis right away and suspected rhenal stones, which was confirmed the day after with a scan. Luckily for my friend he did not need surgery, the stones would come out by themselves by the normal way (which also was very painful, my friend said that it felt like peeing razorblades, but then he knew the reason and was not panicking anymore).
We stayed the night at the hospital (I was allowed to sleep on the couch in my friends private hospitalroom, as he was really panicking, and he wanted my presence for some comfort), we both got breakfast and a delicious thali at noon, just before he was dismissed. All included he payed 300 rupees.
The only "weird" thing about that hospital was that the portrait of the founder of the Kanyakumari was present in every room and every hallway, and that the nurses, staff and some of the patients bursted out in religious chanting every 2 or 3 hours.