A 55-Year-Old Housewife was successfully treated for a complicated surgery of the Gall bladder which ruptured into her abdomen
Covid 19 pandemic has led to immense fear in the minds of people and as a result of this the treatment of all other ailments has taken a backseat, says Dr Aparna
Mumbai: A team led by Dr. Aparna Govil Bhasker, (Laparoscopic and Bariatric Surgeon) at Namaha Hospital, Kandivali successfully treated a 55-year-old housewife for the complicated surgery of the Gall bladder which had ruptured into her abdomen. A laparoscopic cholecystectomy with peritoneal lavage and drainage was performed by Dr. Aparna Govil Bhasker.
A 55-year-old lady, Mrs. Rekha Singh (name changed) was having pain in her abdomen for many weeks. After having her meals, she was very uncomfortable due to rise in pain and acidity. Due to the lockdown, she did some home remedies and kept on taking painkillers off and on. Finally, when the pain became unbearable, she consulted her family physician online who advised her to do a sonography of the abdomen. Sonography revealed stones in the gall bladder along with infection of the gall bladder wall (cholecystitis). She was treated with antibiotics for a week and felt better temporarily. However, her symptoms reappeared after a few days. She consulted her family physician again who advised her to visit the hospital. Due to the fear of contracting Covid 19, she resisted coming to the hospital and continued to self-medicate at home for a few more weeks. Eventually, she was brought to the hospital, with severe pain in abdomen, high fever, vomiting and low blood pressure. The CT scan revealed that because of prolonged infection, the gall bladder had ruptured into her abdomen, leading to the formation of a very large pus collection on the right side of her abdomen. The infection had also spread into her blood (septicaemia) which had led to shock.
Dr Aparna Govil Bhasker, Laparoscopic and Bariatric surgeon at Namaha Hospital, Kandivali West said, “The surgery was difficult and time consuming. The recovery was stormy with many ups and downs. It took her more than a week after the surgery to recover and get discharged from the hospital. People are scared to come to the hospitals and they bear pain and other symptoms till it becomes unbearable. They self-medicate dangerously. This leads to unnecessary delays and unwarranted complications.
“In normal scenario, a laparoscopic gall bladder surgery takes less than an hour to perform and the usual stay in the hospital is for 48 to 72 hours. However, as you can see in these cases, the fear has led to delay in diagnosis which has led to these horror stories which were totally avoidable. Such delays lead to further complications and immense suffering for the patient not only physically but also mentally and financially.Patients are delaying coming to the hospital and when they do come, it’s quite late in the course of their disease. This makes everything much more difficult and also affects the treatment outcomes.” said Dr Aparna.
Mrs Rekha Singh, patient said, “Due to COVID 19 lockdown we were avoiding to visit the hospital and were doing home remedies. We never realised there will be such complications that will lead to so much infection. We are grateful to Dr Aparna Bhasker for giving us timely treatment.”
