This happened during my first year of Ayurved practice in India in Ahmedabad… I was still fresh from Kenya. Fortunately enough I did not have to wait for patients as my arrival in India and my Ayurvdic practice was highly acclaimed by the media.
Patients with all sorts of ailments from far distance and around crowded in my clinic. All sorts of people- children, young and aged-men and women gathered in a big waiting room. I could not see them all on the same day as I had my own limits. I gave enough time to each patient as per his or her ailments. I was here to serve the people and not to make money. I charged a token fee of five rupees for the special patient card which would show the details of the patient’s sickness and the treatment. Restriction of food was shown on the card as per ailments.
The times of my clinic were from 9 a.m to 1.30 p.m. in morning hours and 4.30 to 9 p.m. in the evening… I could hardly attend 35 patients a day… The girl in the waiting room would advise the remaining patients to come the next day.
I attended mostly all types of patients. I would treat only the patients to my knowledge and experiences. No experiments. Others I referred to relevant specialists who were in my good touch.
There was a case of a kidney patient who came from the nearby village. He had the constant pain in the kidney and back and there was a severe burning and itching in the urine. Sometimes the urine was red with blood. It was a case of calculi and I prescribed medicine to remove stones from the kidney. I also advised him to take a certain type of food and drinks.
When he came back after ten days as per my instructions, he still complained of the same symptoms. Perhaps the calculi was of big size and needed special treatment or even an operation. I advised him to go for a urine test and soniography of the kidney and the bladder.
He came back with both and I found several particles of oxaline stones in the urine with excessive pus and blood. I looked at the soniography and the report and found an extra large stone in the kidney… The soniography showed only one kidney and the report of the soniography also talked of one kidney only. I assumed one kidney was removed.
I asked the patient about it. He was not only surprised but shocked to learn that from me. Perhaps I was not able to see another kidney due to not very clean soniography. But when I assured him I had studied the report carefully, he was amazed. He confessed that he had never any problem in his kidney previously and so there was no need to remove a kidney. But he had had an appendix problem and he was operated on for the ailment by his surgeon some 15 months ago… He even showed me the stitches on the right side of the stomach … He was sure he had two kidneys before the appendix operation as he had the soniography and the report showing both the kidneys to be normal.
The next day he brought the soniography and the report which clearly showed and mentioned the existence of both the kidneys.
The patient was really upset to know that his kidney was removed during the operation of the appendix without his knowledge. The doctor never mentioned it to him. If there had any problem in the kidney which he could have seen while operating on the appendix, he could have spoken about it to him. It appeared he had removed the kidney without permission perhaps for sale to another patient.
A rumour circulated that this particular doctor was removing kidney and selling them: it seemed it was true since it had happened to my patient.
He left my clinic and straight away went to the particular surgeon. He ignored the receptionist. He pushed the compounder aside and entered the cabin of the doctor who was busy checking the patient. There were some more patients on the chairs in the waiting room.
The patient shouted at the doctor and asked about his kidney. The doctor was very upset to see how angry the patient was. He realized he had operated him last year for an appendix.
He asked the patient to calm down and have a seat. The patient did not calm down and kept on shouting. The doctor was afraid and he asked the other patients to wait outside until he finished with his old patient.
When all the patients were out and he only remained with his kidney patient, he very calmly asked him to take it easy. He told him that he had never touched his kidney but had only operated on his appendix. The patient should not have come to the hospital for that and that after so long, he said; disturbing the other patients could not be tolerated.
And the angry patient slapped the doctor very hard and a couple of teeth came out with bleeding from the mouth of the doctor. The doctor tried to press the bell when the patient got hold of him and threatened him to kill him if he did not confess his crime. And the helpless doctor had no choice but to surrender.
He confessed that he had removed the kidney during the operation of the appendix to save the poor patient who was on death-bed… He agreed he should have consulted him before making such a serious error. The patient roared with anger.
Considering the tense situation and to save his prestige, the Doctor removed a bundle of Rs. One lac from his safe and gave it to the patient to wind up the matter without any outsiders knowing about it. He requested the patient to keep the matter secret. The annoyed patient glared at the doctor with fierce eyes. The frightened doctor gave another fifty thousand rupees to the patient and asked him to close the matter for ever, be polite and leave the hospital immediately. The patient suddenly became very calm to see the big lump sum of money. He had never expected to get so much money for his kidney. He had never seen a lump sum of the type before in his hands.
And the patient came back to my clinic and briefed me about what had happened. He requested me to keep the matter between two of us and forget the issue as rupees one lack and fifty thousand was really too much for him. He could have sold the kidney for a lesser amount than that if he had known about the deal. He badly needed money for his daughter for the further studies.
He pledged to donate twenty thousand to my clinic for the needy patients as I played a major role in the particular matter…and I started fresh treatment for the large stone in the kidney.
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