Update: – Please see the previous post below for all the investigation reports.
As friends and colleagues of PT Srini you may know that he is no longer with us.
Knowing him closely for 15 years as my best friend, I know that if he were alive, he would have wanted to know what really happened to him so that others do not suffer this. So, I am writing to let you know what happened in the last few days leading to this tragedy.
PT Srinivasan had always been active and energetic person full of life. At any given time, you can see him making someone laugh.
Wednesday, 31 October
Due to severe abdominal pain, Srini along with this family went to Malar hospital for treatment. The doctor said it could be because of food irritation and asked Srini to undergo USG sonogram. The test showed renal cysts, later found to be not a major problem. So they took the USG results to an urologist who asked him not to worry about the cyst and referred Dr Murali, a Gastroenterologist for the abdominal pain investigation.
Please see the previous post below for all the investigation reports.
Nov 1, Thursday
On Thursday, Srini went to office as usual but had abdomen pain on and off. In the evening, they went to see Murali, the Gastroenterologist for the abdominal pain investigation. After listening to Srini’s symptoms he too suspected it as gastric problem and asked Srini to take pain killer injections at Malar hospital. And if the pain didn’t subside the doctor asked him to get admitted at Malar hospitals. The doctor also left a note on the prescription that he will not be available on 1st Nov and will be back in town only on that evening. So, they went to Malar hospitals, and took the painkillers as advised by Dr. Murali. Then they came back home.
Nov 2, Friday
At 1 am on Nov 1, since the pain didn’t subside, Srini was admitted at Malar hospital as suggested by Dr Murali. Between 1 am and 5 am he was given 4 pain killers. And just the previous night he was given one. Only after 5 am he slept for one hour. At 6 am blood tests were done. (see test reports attached)
I was with him from 12 noon to 2:30 pm. We were chatting for 30 mins – he seemed ok and talked as usual. He slept at 1 pm and woke up at 2:30 to have the veg soup. I left at 2:30 pm. He didn’t seem to have any pain since Friday morning. At 3 pm he had slight pain in the abdomen. At 7 pm he had some juice.
10 pm – His aunt was with him. According to his aunt, he was restless, had back pain and had sweating in the head. She complained to the duty nurse ,who in turn just passed it off saying it could be because of the AC which was switched off. (Since it was the post-cyclone (Nilam) day the weather was not hot; at midnight the weather was also chill there is no logic in what the nurse said sweat because of A/C.)
11 pm – Shoulder pain.
11:30-00:30 – Restless, walking
00:45 – Motion problem
Nov 3, Saturday.
6 am – prepared the wrist for IV (reason not known). Blood given for tests
7 am – had tender coconut. Feeling slightly better
8:30 am – ECG done – which according to the doctor was normal.( It is said incase of gas problem ECG reading would not be accurate and would not show a proper cardiac issue in case of any.
9 am – signed the form for endoscopy (is this common?) And with the symptoms of sweat and pain in upper limb is it not necessary a complete examination to be done by the shift / Specialist to check all records before doing endoscopy.
10 am – Aparna was with him. He seemed to be little worried and restless.
At 12:30 noon on Nov 3, I spoke to him over the phone as he was getting ready for endoscopy. He said, he has slight pain in the abdomen and shoulders (Cause of concern) and he was getting ready for endoscopy.
1 pm – He walked in to the endoscopy room, Aparna waiting outside. Within 5 minutes Aparna heard someone screaming from the room “where’s the emergency kit?” Only after the third shout, someone fetched the kit. Then after few mins someone called for anesthetist.( should the endoscopy lab not be equipped with the emergency kits?)
1:30 pm – As I was getting ready to leave to the hospital I got a call from Aparna there is an emergency and asked me to come to hospital immediately. When I reached the hospital at 2ish Aparna said Srini has had cardiac arrest. We were waiting outside the ICU. I could see from the outside of ICU a team of doctors and paramedics trying to revive the heart through resuscitation.
Please see the previous post below for all the investigation reports.
At around 2:30 the doctor came out and asked his parents:
Doctor – Did he have any complaint of fever or chest pain recently?
Parents and wife: No
Doctor – Does he have hypertension or diabetes ( I wonder how the doctors in the ICU are not without his case sheets and asks the parents when the patient is in ICU)
Parents and wife – No, he didn’t have any of those and was a healthy person.
Doctor – His heart is not responding we are trying our best.
After 15 mins the doctor called his father and a relative and told that they are trying to revive the heart for the past 1 hour and the heart is not responding. And the doctor said this is because he has a rarest form of viral infection which affects the heart and because of that the heart doesn’t pump. And after few mins the doctor said he is no more.
As friends and colleagues you may know that he was healthy and was one of the most energetic guy you could see.
Here are some nagging questions:
1. Why did the gastroenterologist took so long to do an endoscopy – he was admitted to hospital on the night of Nov 1, but was taken to endoscopy only on Nov 3rd afternoon.
2) What were the medicines given between this time?
3) Didn’t the blood test results and ECG indicate anything abnormal? If yes, was any medication given? If no a person having gastric issue will the ECG provide correct readings.
3) When complained of shoulders upper limb pain along with sweat which was informed to the Duty nurse why the same was not informed to the Duty doctor and checked/ examined by the doctor then and there.
4) Was this observation informed to the concern doctor ( Mr.Murali who has suggested for an the endoscopy)
5) Were the symptoms (a mild cardiac arrest) taken in to consideration before the doing endoscopy.
6) How can the doctors just seconds after he passed away say that it was because of viral infection? Were there any tests to confirm this? According to the death certificate the reason of death is Viral Myopericarditis
7) If he had viral infection why it was not diagnosed properly?
Looks like there are several lapses in the process and it looks like he died either because of the pain killers or he was not diagnosed properly.
The hospital owes us an explanation of his treatment. If you have any other details please inform us through comments as it will help us to know what really happened.
The family, including his wife and three little kids are shocked and devastated by this loss. No words can console them.
Please see the previous post below for all the investigation reports.
What Really Happened to PT Srini? 