It appears that it is not just private hospitals that have made Bengaluru a medical tourism destination but some government hospitals too. The State-run Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Chest Diseases (RGICD) has successfully conducted right lung lobectomy on a 42-year-old patient from Afghanistan, who landed at the hospital after his problem remained untreated in various private hospitals he visited.
A team of doctors and paramedical staff, led by the institute director, Shashidhar Buggi, performed the five-hour surgery on Monday. A lobectomy is a surgery to remove one of the infected lobes of the lung. After the affected lobe is removed, the remaining healthy lung tissue can function normally.
“Although the surgery usually takes two to three hours, it went on for almost five hours as the patient had an infection in the right lower lobe for over 25 years. He had recurrent cough for years that had developed into massive haemoptysis (coughing of blood). If the surgery had been done at the initial stage itself, the complications could have been reduced,” Dr. Buggi explained.
A real estate agent at Khushal Khan, Kabul, Jamshed Shirzoi, was operated upon in a hospital in Kabul at the age of 16 when he was diagnosed with a chest infection. He was subsequently taken to Islamabad, Pakistan, where he underwent another thoracic surgery on the right side of his chest, at a medical college hospital.
His brother Mohammed Sarvary told The Hindu that despite the surgeries Mr. Shirzoi had persistent cough and lived with it for more than 25 years. “His problem worsened in the last two years and he started coughing blood. With a hope of getting him treated, we took him to a top private hospital in Delhi and in Bengaluru. Although we spent a huge amount of money on investigations and treatment, my brother continued to suffer. Then, one of our cousins studying in a college in Mangaluru suggested that we bring him to the RGICD,” said Mr. Sarvary.
“We had not imagined that my brother’s long-standing medical problem could be treated in a government hospital. We are grateful to the doctors here for their care and treatment,” he said. Dr. Buggi said the patient was doing well after the surgery and would be discharged in 10 days. “He will have to come for a follow up after three months. It is unfortunate that his congenital problem remained undiagnosed for yeas,” he added.
