Free Medicines
Madhu (name changed) had been
my patient for thirty years. She aged before my eyes, had three children, a few
grand children, developed diabetes (uncontrolled), hypertension (also
uncontrolled). She finally had a myocardial infarction and was taken to CMC
Vellore.
She had a couple of stents put in and was discharged
with a long list of instructions and a large packet of medications. She came to
see me with clutching both in her hand. Her feet were visibly swollen and her
sugars 246.
“What is this? Did they not
give you a diet to follow?”
“Yes,” she replied, “I eat it
all. Not enough for a human to survive on. I then eat the leftovers---.”
I didn’t want to ask what
leftovers she meant.
“What about your salt? It
says here that you have to eat 1.5 gms a day.”
“Huh,” she said, “my daughter
in law cooks the food with no salt at all. Human beings cannot eat it. I mix
everything with tender mango pickle.”
That certainly explained the
swollen feet!
She was very cunning. For two
days before going for a check up, she would literally starve. It was made easy
by the unpalatable salt free food. Her AC and PC values were normal and her HbA1c was 9 or10.
They gave her a glucometer
and threatened to start her on insulin.
Then she came and told me
that CMC had a scheme whereby everything was free for poor people. The
glucometer, strips, tests medications--.”
“But,” I protested, “you are
not poor.”
“No,” she admitted ,”I am a
widow though.”
A rich widow, who lived in
her own house, had a son who paid for everything and received the rent from a
row of six shops every month like clockwork.
Against my advice, “It will
not pay to tell untruths,” she went and registered for the free treatment or
tried to.
She turned up with her son a
few weeks later.
“Doctor, I don’t know what is
wrong with her. She has tried to sign up for free treatment for an experimental
drug for some sort of research. “
He held up a four page
consent form. I did not go through the whole thing but It said various
interesting things like they will “help with allergies, kidney failure etc.”
“I don’t know why my mother
does this. I give her money for charts, tests and medicines when she goes to
hospital.”
She looked sheepish. “The
lady who was sitting next to me signed up--- I wanted to save money. “
“For what?” Asked the son.
She said she didn’t want to
go back there (They might remember her). I tried to reassure her but in vain.
“Doctor you treat me please.”
“Okay,” I said “but first
some rules. No pickles. No extra food and walking for 40 minutes a day. I don’t
care if you split it into 4 segments10
minutes each. The first time I find you are disobedient and non compliant, I
will send you back there----”
She agreed to everything and
we parted on a cordial note.
