For Rashmi
I am enraged and terrified. There are always 2 sides to a story and the layman will vouch for the underdog which is what we are all doing for Rashmi – read MM’s post here.But how could we not?
As someone who will be (hopefully) a mother soon, this story is my worst nightmare. Of course, my situation is not the same. This is my first child. What annoys me most is the hospital’s claim (Wockhardt has a long rebuttal in MM’s comments) that Rashmi chose Dr. Latha because she wanted a VBAC. This is conjecture and probably not useful to any lawyer fighting on facts but I know, I just KNOW that no matter how certain a woman is about how she wants her birth to be, no matter how much she is set on a certain type of experience she would not, would not put her child at risk.
We hear about miscarriages, right up until the third trimester. But when a full-term child dies during delivery it makes me very very suspect.
Wockhardt presents a different image of Rashmi – someone who is sending “random” emails and “purposely” harming the doctor’s reputation. That Rashmi doesn’t want mass media attention speaks volumes for the kind of person she is and the change she is seeking. The kind of person she is, is a mother.
Girl on the Bridge 
absolutely. i love your last line.
Wockhardt presents a different image of Rashmi – someone who is sending “random” emails and “purposely” harming the doctor’s reputation. That Rashmi doesn’t want mass media attention speaks volumes for the kind of person she is and the change she is seeking. The kind of person she is, is a mother.
Just to clarify .. We dont have any intention to presenting any image of Rashmi . Our post was based on the other side of the story.
I am sure you will appreciate that there are two sides of the story and users and bloggers should be made aware of this
Unlike others we do not hope to rake this issue to create mileage. We just wish to be heard on our side of the story.
Dear Dr. Akhilesh Pateraya, No one is stopping you from being heard. In fact I explicitly pointed people on my blog to your response/ comment/ side of the story. And the words in quotes are from you (which is why the quotes) so I think everyone can decide for themselves what you are presenting.
As for your side of the story – true, not everything is black and white. And I know doctors are human and the medical profession is often stuck bearing the brunt for the way nature intends to do things. All I and many are saying is that we find your story is less than convincing, has many holes and some of us have first-hand experience of being treated with less than enough care at your hospital. So our opinions are no doubt skewed that way.
And lastly your otherwise polite comment was defeated by your “unlike others” we don’t want mileage statement. Did you really think I would let that snarky comment go? Rashmi is getting mileage for what? Nothing we do will bring her child back.
You have capital, lawyers, a reputation and brick and mortar buildings. Rashmi just has us.
kindly remove the name of Dr. Akhilesh Pateraya, since this is wrong information posted in this article. I am Akhilesh Pateraya and i want this ASAP , kinly do the needful and let me know.
there is no Dr Akhilesh Patareya working in Wockhardt. Someone has played the fool here. Check your mail box of the email id. sent in by people claiming to come from Wockhardt.
Now that Fortis has taken over, they would have done due diligence on the hospital and staff and let us hope for the best and let cases like Rashmi not happen.
I have followed this discussion and no one seems to have thought about the thing called “Fate”.
What ever Wockhardt has written regarding Rashmi is defensive. Wockhardt is boasting and eager to get the case analysed by competent authority. Wockhardt may buy some highly paid lawyers but at the end if this case is prosecuted properly in courts, with transprent media vigilance, then Wockhardt will loose the case 100%.
Well said. I have sent a link to this post to Rashmi. Her dignity sometimes takes my breath away. She is averse to media attention because she knows it fades quickly and will not accomplish her purpose: namely, forcing Wockhardt to change its policies.
She herself is (mostly) silent online because she simply doesn’t have the energy to respond to every message. She’s back at work, and also (something that many people seem to have forgotten) has a four year-old to take care of. She does try to respond to emails that people send her, and always, always takes calls from people who want to reach out – even press.
@MM: Last night, she sent me a list of questions which she encourages readers to ask the hospital. I will post these on your blog.
Hi Suman – thanks for stopping by. See Wockhardt’s response above. What gets me is not that they don’t accept responsibility – that’s not surprising, but their complete unwillingness to say “you know what, cases like these let us know that there’s always room for improvement. even great hospitals have things to learn and we’ll do a case study and see how we can prevent this in the future.” They stop at refusing to take blame. And that’s just a shame.
… and that is exactly what Rashmi tried to get them to do for almost two months, before she decided to tell her story to people. All she was saying was : “There is a problem, please set your house in order so it doesn’t happen again.”
I have grown up around doctors, so I am always on their side. Always believe that they do their best. I was – and still am – flabbergasted at the hospital’s attitude.
Dear Suman,
I want to ahead and fight out rashmi’s case in court. I am 100% sure that Wockhardt and Dr Latha will loose.
It isn’t nice to malign a doctor for one’s misfortune. Dr. Latha has been our family Gynec for years and all my women cousins trust her. She has always been there and when she has been busy with other emergencies, her assistants have been more than competent in handling the cases. She chooses the best in the breed as Assistants and they are as trustworthy and helpful as she is. If anyone expects Dr. Latha to hold their hands every minute of their pregnancy, then the should realise that she has other patients too.
Shruti, please see my response to Savita below. No one wishes to malign Dr. Latha. And as a noted gynec I’d sure hope she is worthy of her reputation and loved by her patients! The main issue is not how present Dr. Latha was – while it’s part of it, larger issues such as the hospital’s incompetency in dealing with an emergency is what she’s fighting. Lack of attention to the uterine tear seems to be the main reason why the baby died and that is not an answer we have received yet. Please don’t make it a Us vs. Dr. Latha story because that’s precisely what this is not.
Just for a little more info, if Dr. Latha has a conscience let her give her explanation about near deaths she caused to a baby & another mother( a doctor) at “the cradle” , luckily for her the efficiency of the staff & other concerned doctors at that hospital saved both lives. she was asked to STOP practice there by the management. There are also stories about many mishaps at the place where she regularly consults. Just hope people do understand this issue is serious & not about any one individual trying to ruin the ‘reputation’ of a doctor or hospital. It is about the arrogance of knowing how to wriggle out of sticky solutions. RCOG does not recommend such callousness, what non sense is to say lucky you have your uterus intact, pray & try again? Like hell, if anyone truly cared about the mom & baby they could have acted more sensibly. What worse than this could have happened if she had a C-Section? May be in the hands of incompetent surgeons there can be lot many complications but good surgeons send their patients home even in 24 hrs after a C-section. Just because some institutions & doctors are so arrogant & desensitized the whole medical fraternity gets a bad name.
Thanks Savitha – sorry about your experience. I do however take no pleasure in pin-pointing Dr. Latha as the culprit. In a lifetime of practice, doctors will have made mistakes, unwittingly caused accidents and deaths. It’s not their very human frailties I fault but lack of acceptance of any responsibility at all.
Anybody sensible reading these sort of mails will realise it is corporate warfare between two competitors Wockhardt and Cradle! Unfortunately, patients are being taken for a ride…..
I get a funny feeling that this entire episode is motivated and that Wockhardt Hospital is bearing the brunt by just being the larger entity in this whole issue. Why is Suman Bolar fighting this case with so much of energy and would anybody go so public with their emotions on such a personal issue if there is no ulterior motive. Even world class doctors and hospitals sometimes have to face situations like this. What happened to Rashmi was no doubt tragic but to bring this tragedy into the public domain and that too with such careful planning by someone not even related to the patient smacks of something. I am sure you can leave Rashmi alone Suman in this hour of grief rather than make her an object of public sympathy
I see what you are saying but feel that your sympathies are a bit misdirected. True, it’s a tough line to walk – between maintaining your dignity and privacy but engendering awareness in a positive way to engender change. Rashmi is not her real name and she has not shown her face on TV or any mass media outlet – that’s the dignity and privacy angle. But for awareness – absolutely, as a pregnant woman I would prefer more knowledge that sweep these things under a rug. It’s the classic question we ask of rape victims – a very sensitive issue no doubt. But the more we hush-hush sensitive issues, the less we learn from them, the less positive change that is generated. So no, this is not pity for Rashmi. This is support in her quest to get Wockhardt to at least admit that this is a case that provides room for improvement and learning. A very worthy “ulterior motive” in my mind.
I have grown up around doctors, so I am always on their side. Always believe that they do their best. I was – and still am – flabbergasted at the hospital’s attitude.
Oh that is good to hear….. !! However from your mission to broadcast the message to all and sundry it does not seem that you have any inkling of what medical science is all about !!
am assuming you are writing to Suman here. How does OUR collective mission to spread the word about the case have anything to do with knowing or not knowing anything about medical science. Should I even bother trying to find a connection between those non-sequiturs??
Now I feel that no indian Hospital should do VBAC as facilities for immediate section do not exist even in the best of Indian Hospitals. The FNOs who transport the [pateints are usally more than 40 years and they moove at slow pace which means longer time to reach the OT. OTs are understaffed, and it is very difficult to do emergency section. Third facilities for cras anaesthesia do not exist in most Hospitals. I presonally feel we in india should not attempt stunts in Obstetrics which some western people do. We should play it safe, because every baby is a miracle and every unborn child has a right to life.
there is no one called Dr. Akhilesh Patareya who worked there, may be a PR person.
see this http://vijayashankar.wordpress.com/2010/03/12/dr-akilesh-is-no-more-r-i-p/