A mother knows

We got married in Dec 2009 and soon after my marriage some Pandit told my mother in law,  that since my husband and I have common "nadi" we won’t be able to have any child. But to my surprise I conceived both the times very easily.To this too my mother-in-law believes was because she donated a huge sum to our Guru's "Temple". 

My husband & myself just laugh it off but can't change her thinking. Both my husband and I are doctors, and yet it is very difficult to shake away the superstitions so ingrained in our society.

Being a doctor definitely helped my son's diagnosis. My son is 3 yrs old & my daughter is 2 months old now, and I am grateful to have both of them in my life. 

During my first pregnancy I was working in LTMC at Sion(Mumbai) and thus, my anomaly scan were done by seniors there.Anomaly scan is generally done before the 20 weeks of gestation. It is the time when all the organs of the baby are formed and helps in identifying any physical problems with the baby. If there are life threatening anomalies, this is also the time when the parents are adviced about medical termination of pregnancy before the government decided 21 weeks.

 I had done this scan at both the government as well as at a private clinic in Dadar and yet my son's supracardiac TAPVC (total anomalous pulmonary venous circulation) wasn't picked up.

I was undergoing a normal labour at a Nasik hospital but  during a per-vaginal examination the gynaecologist noticed meconium, and I had to undergo an emergency caesarean section. My baby had meconium aspiration. The pediatrician who attended him at night during the section didn't visit me despite the phone calls, so we got a friend of my husband to have a look.

 For his blood collection, hospital staff took him away from me saying I won't be able to bear him cry. Luckily my husband went inside the collection room. To his horror these fools were planning to go for a femoral for a 3 day old new-born just for a nonsense 50 or 100 Rupees cut from the laboratory!

 We took him to a third paediatrician for his blood collection.

On fifth day after my discharge I took him to another well-known Paediatrician for immunization.To my surprise despite me being a fellow doctor this senior doctor didn't even examine my child, as he was going through another file, & told his assistant to give immunization !

He asked me to get my son admitted for photo therapy despite his bilirubin being 11 (which I was later told by my friends is physiological jaundice and does not mandate phototherapy).

During these initial few days I had developed allergic bronchitis. I noticed that the urine diapers were less. Being a primi I wasn't sure about the feeding cycle. But I had a gut feeling that something was wrong.

 I decided to visit yet another paediatrician, who told me that my son has got cough from me. That was strange since It was impossible that I could infect my son as I had allergic cough! At the age of 10 days he was diagnosed having URTI(upper respiratory tract infection) which is not seen at that age.

Because of my multiple visits to various doctors I was diagnosed with "postpartum psychosis", but that did not stop me from trying to uncover the cause of my sons cough.

Finally on 14th day I visited another doctor. By then he had started vomiting and showing signs of pulmonary hypertension. The doctor suggested that we should do an ECHO which made the diagnosis.

The doctor who did ECHO was our college senior. Though he diagnosed correctly my son’s cardiac condition, he started telling me about treatment packages & how I should go to a specific hospital for my son's surgery! This horrible person knew that my husband was doing his cardiology & being a mother I was just trying to get into the situation.

 I immediately went to Mumbai ( Sion) where my husband was doing his residency. Meanwhile an ICU bed was booked & next day he was operated. I remember asking the operating surgeon if my son would ever be able to have children of his own, a common question asked by patients but which we used to find funny earlier.After the surgery, when the operating surgeon said that the surgery was a success, I touched his feet.

 During my long stay at hospital I noticed that all the operated babies were around 2 Kgs & only my son was the one with birth weight 3.34 kg which helped in an early recovery.

 Also being medico we got him operated before developing pneumonia which is very common in such kids. During my stay I used to feed him every 2 hourly and  breast milk output never stopped which generally happens for mothers when their children are in intensive care.

At 1 month follow up I saw all the kids who were operated during  the same time. I realized the importance of breast milk, as most of others were on top feed.

 Also post- op my son started having seizures which is very difficult to pick up since all his four limbs used to get stiff for few seconds. This was followed by anticonvulsants, EEG's & MRI's. Then despite all the care he got a stitch abscess .After the abscess drainage he was started on Vancomycin i.v. and developed allergy to it! Till then I had only read about red-man syndrome in my pharmacology books but actually saw "red man syndrome"(vanco allergy)in my son.

 He was diagnosed with intra-op hypoxic seizures. Later with anticonvulsive Rx he never had them. 6 months later it was stopped. Meanwhile he was achieving his milestones & by 8 mnts of age everything was stopped. Then I went ahead for my interview of Asst Professor in ophthalmology.

This is an anonymous post 

editors note: Thankyou doctor for sharing your story. It is a powerful narrative with many lessons. First off, it is a mirror at the medical profession where a doctor herself speaks about , inability of the radiologists to pick up the diagnosis intrauterine, the maternity unit trying to make extra money by pricking a small baby, senior consultants not paying attention and passing on to their assistants, the pressures of private practitioners to 'sell' the various 'hospital packages'. 

But more than anything I think the story highlights that 'a mothers instinct ' is a strange and powerful thing. Here is a mother whose own husband is a training cardiologist, but even the father was unable to pickup that something was wrong with the son. Even after being diagnosed as 'post partum psychosis' and everyone naturally telling her that 'it is all in her mind', she persisted! The mother's instinct knew something was wrong; even though she was a first time mother. That's just AMAZING!