Dr. Vikram .R. Lotwala

Backdrop: When an invasive procedure or surgery is required, written consent is a must. How seriously do doctors act on taking ‘informed consent’? More often than not, doctors treat consent as a mere formality to safeguard themselves rather than for the purpose of making the patient aware of what he is letting himself in for. Is such consent valid in the eyes of the law? Case Study: Mahesh Kumar, a young boy, was suffering from an ear infection with a foul-smelling discharge emitting from his ears, combined with giddiness, vomiting and fever. His father took him to Orthonova Institute of Advance Orthopaedic Surgery and Research where Dr A K Mittal, an ENT Surgeon, examined the child and advised surgery known as Modified Radical Mastoidectomy costing Rs 26,000. Two days after surgery, the boy was discharged. However, there was no improvement. Nine months later,Mahesh’s father took him to AIIMS hospital where the doctors said that the child had developed facial paralysis due to the ...

Hospitals Use Tweets From Operating Rooms, YouTube Videos Of Procedures As Marketing Tools The point of Shila Renee Mullins’s brain surgery was to remove a malignant tumor threatening to paralyze her left side. But Methodist University Hospital in Memphis also saw an opportunity to promote the hospital to prospective patients. So, a video webcast of Mullins’s awake craniotomy, in which the patient remains conscious and talking while surgeons prod and cut inside her brain, was promoted with infomercials and advertisements featuring a photograph of a beautiful model, not Mullins. This time, Methodist did not use billboards as it has with other operations, deeming this procedure too sensitive. But its marketing department monitors how many people have watched the webcast, seen a preview on YouTube and requested appointments . Hospitals are using unconventional, even audacious, ways of connecting directly with the public. Seeking to attract or educate patients, entice donors, gain recognit...

Original Text The Lancet has called for papers relating to violence and related response by medical fraternity. The Lancet says - Unfortunately, the 21st century world is all too familiar with violent conflicts. Some, like Israel's recent incursion into Gaza, make the headlines for weeks while others, like current events in Sri Lanka that are part of a 26-year war, continue to bring death, pain, and misery with little international attention. Fortunately, medical humanitarian organisations do not pay attention only to news headlines and aim to bring medical assistance to people in countries such as the Democratic Republic of Congo and Somalia, two of the most neglected humanitarian situations in the world. The involvement of the health community in violent conflicts should be more than disaster relief. In a recent Lancet Editorial we said: “If the Hippocratic Oath means anything, all doctors whatever their situation, specialty, or seniority should live up to this name by calling...

There’s good news for cancer patients undergoing radiotherapy. A new breakthrough by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) may finally provide them some relief from the serious side-effects of ionising radiation that’s given to them during the treatment process reports The Times of India, 21st May 2009 . The DRDO has developed a herbal substitute for the ‘‘only effective’’ but toxic chemical radio protector, given to patients to minimise the harmful side effect of ionising radiations. The herbal radio protector is developed from two plants found in the Himalayan region. Following the encouraging pre-clinical trial results in animals, the DRDO is all set to conduct human trials. ‘‘The herbal radio protector has no side effects and is found to give 100% protection against harmful side effects of ionising radiation. The only chemical radio protector available in the world is highly toxic. If our human trials are successful, then it will replace the chemical radio protec...

A recent judgment by the Supreme court in South Korea has ordered patient’s respirator removed on request of patient relatives. Doctors treating a comatose woman must remove her from life support as her family requested, the South Korean supreme court said on Thursday—the first time it has ruled in favour of a patient’s right to die. The relatives had filed petition against the hospital as it was not ready to stop the ventilator. The patient was in vegetative state for more than a year. The relatives had argued that patient had always opposed keeping people alive with machines. Does this ruling open up a pandoras box? We still do not know, but it is really a food for thought. How many people in poor country like India can afford a expensive ICU treatment for the dear ones. Such patients not only drain the resources but even the relatives too. But legalizing euthanasia will creates problems medico-legally, specially in cases of suicides.

A recent judgement from Supreme court if India has given an opportunity to Doctors who want to help the Injured but are scared about the medico-legal implication and the legal hassles associted with such cases. The persistent fear among the medical community is that any minor lapses in noting the details of the patient and the relatives creates a big police trouble. The judgement says that the treating doctor should provide medical attention to the patient and need not worry about the other details of the patient. “It is not the requirement of law that doctors, even before admitting the injured or during their treatment, must note down every bit of details of the incident or names of the witnesses in the registers maintained by them,” said Justice Sinha, writing the judgment.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced in this month's Journal of the American Medical Association that 18.9 percent of Americans are obese. In the past decade, obesity among adults has risen by almost 60 percent. From 1998 to 1999, the CDCP says obesity among Americans shot up six percent. Obesity accounts for 300,000 premature deaths each year (second only to tobacco-related deaths) and accounts for 9.4 percent of the healthcare expenditures nationwide, the CDCP said. The next time you admonish yourself for being fat, don't think you just look bad and can't fit your jeans. Think that you have a disease and need a cure, as you would from any other disease. Treat it medically with prescribed diet and exercise from our health & fitness diet and exercise tips. Check with your doctor before launching a 'get well' regime.

We're Impatient • I am utterly tired of being your mother. Every time I see you, I have to say the obligatory "You need to lose some weight." But you swear you "don't eat anything" or "the weight just doesn't come off," and the subject is dropped. Then you come in here complaining about your knees hurting, your back is killing you, your feet ache, and you can't breathe when you walk up half a flight of stairs. So I'm supposed to hold your hand and talk you into backing away from that box of Twinkies. Boy, do I get tired of repeating the stuff most patients just don't listen to. -- Cardiologist , Brooklyn, New York PHOTOGRAPHED BY DAN WINTERS "Hospitals want physicians to send patients home faster, so some doctors are given bonuses for getting their patients out of the hospital q...