MYSTERIOUS FEVER

By Dr. Leo Rebello

N.D., Ph.D., D.Sc., F.F.Hom., M.B.A.
28/552 Samata Nagar, Kandivali East, Mumbai 400101.
Telefax (91-22) 28872741.
Email : drleorebello@gmail.com Website : www.healthwisdom.org

Our elder son Ronald passed away on 23/02/07 at the KEM Hospital, Bombay, on
admission at about 1.00 in the morning. The MICU of the KEM had better facilities
than the fleecing hospital (Riddhi Vinayak Critical Care Hospital, in Malad, run
by one Dr.V.S.Goyal, MD, DM) where Ronald's condition deteriorated obviously
because of carpet bombing by weapons of mass destruction called the broad spectrum
antibiotics. Without consulting us they put central intravenous line and infused
something like 20 bottles of glucose saline, 3 bottles of blood A+, several
injections and medicines through Ryle’s tube in 48 hours.

The fever began all of a sudden on 29/01 and it was 103o/104oF, periodically
coming down to 101oF due to enemas, compresses, homeopathic remedies and proper
diet personally fed by me and the patient's mother.

Even though we treated Ronald at home till 19th February, we did several tests,
some thrice over, on the advice of seniors who kept visiting our home. Widal test
was negative, no malaria parasite, no dengue, no Australia antigen, no infective
hepatitis, no meningitis, no tuberculosis, and no pneumonia. HIV test, in which I
do not believe, was also done and that too was negative. Digital X'Ray PA view of
lungs was normal. Blood studies were normal. Blood culture of seven days was also
normal.

Sonography of the Abdomen and Pelvis (taken on 19/02 evening, on admission to

Vibha Family Care Hospital) showed all organs perfect and normal and no ascites.
Ultrafast multislice multiplanar plain CT scan of brain was performed on 22/02/07.
It said: “There is no focal area of altered attenuation in the supra or
infratentorial parenchyma. Ventricles, sulci and cisterns are normal. No midline
shift seen. Visualized skull base and paranasal sinuses appear normal. Conclusion:
No focal parenchymal abnormality is detected”.

Swallowing reflex was normal, urine voided was sufficient to the liquid taken by
mouth. RBC count was 4.46 and haemoglobin was 13.5, which later dropped to 7.5. We
shifted him to RVCC on 20/02 because of sudden drop in BP - 90/40 mmHg. In RVCC
they repeated several tests, several times and started bombarding medicines, even
though I argued with the hospital authorities that antibiotics can help only in
bacterial infection, not in case of viral attack. I also urged the doctors to look
for heavymetal-poisoning or kapha (phlegm) having gone to the brain and the cause
of sudden loss of RBCs. Could it be due to gastro-intestinal bleeding? But there
was no occult blood in the stools or no blood in urine. I asked them, when RBCs
were being destroyed and vitality down, was it wise to bombard with so many
medicines which may prove lethal? Ronald slumped into an unconscious state instead
of improving, as hospital bills went up astronomically.

They also pressurised us to do lumbar puncture for meningitis (even though brain
scan and another X-Ray of chest was normal). The CSF study results, too, turned
out normal. Then they frightened us that his creatinine level was going up and put
him on dialysis. Thereafter they declared that it was acute multi organ failure.
If on 19/02 night, scan shows all organs functioning normally, and on 20/02
another scan shows multi organ failure, then either your tests are faulty or your
treatment is the cause of the multi organ failure, I said. If you give so many
medicines to someone who had not taken anything except sweet pills of homeopathy
all these 25 years, this would naturally happen, I stressed. I had told the
internist, one Dr. Prannay Oza, on admission that drugs should not be pumped
indiscriminately and yet they did. I was happy to note that Dr. Oza, second in
command at the RVCC had BHMS degree and I had discussed with him in detail what
medicines I had given to Ronald in consultation with his former teachers, Dr.
K.N.Kasad, MBBS, MF Hom, D.Sc., and Dr. Kishore Mehta, MD. I wonder how Dr.
Prannay Oza, a Homeopath, can prescribe Allopathic medicines, which is against
law.

If various sophisticated tests cannot establish the cause of the fever and various
medicines cannot bring down the fever, I wonder whether Allopathy is a science or
quackery. Finally, in the discharge note they wrote, Diagnosis: Acute
Pancreatitis (which is a symptom), Acute Renal Failure (due to what?), Multi Organ
Failure (was it due to sudden onslaught of aggressive treatment?) and
Leptospirosis (?) based on Leptospira Antibody IgM which showed 10.9 of observed
value on panbio units (9.00 to 11.0 is equivocal). Leptospira Antibody IgM could
be positive due to other acute infections like Q fever, Toxoplasma, and
Mycoplasma. Equivocal means neither here, nor there. Also, I argued that
Leptospirosis occurs mostly in monsoon, that too if one has a wound and one were
to wade through sewage or animal excreta or urine (nothing of which Ronald had
done) and has a full cycle of 9 days. I also queried, how could Leptospirosis
fever last for 25 days? To all these searching questions the RVCC doctors had no
answers.

I lost my temper and told the fleecing doctors (because the hospital expenses in
two days were almost Rs.1.5 lakhs, cash down payment) that this ‘hit and miss
diagnosis and hit and miss treatment’ will sink my son. So, I organised a fully
equipped, airconditioned Ambulance with a doctor and a nurse and we started from
RVCC Malad, at 11.30 PM, for KEM Parel (total distance between two hospitals about
20 kms). At the time of discharge from RVCC, Ronald passed his last stool and the
hospital even argued with the Ambulance assistants over a bedsheet. They removed
hospital clothes and put my son naked in the Ambulance. What an assault on the
patient's dignity!

Midway to the KEM, intubated Ronald opened his eyes and looked all around and
shook his head and closed his eyes (I think it is at that time his soul escaped
through his eyes). One of his Faculty from Nirmala Niketan, Sr. Anita Chettiar,
who was with me in the Ambulance kept urging Ronald to fight on and kept praying
to the Holy Spirit to help him. On admission to MICU of KEM, the doctors declared
that his heart had stopped. But they (and me) tried to revive Ronald for half an
hour, while Anita kept praying fervently.

We did all that we could to save our son from this mysterious fever, the cause of
which has not been identified inspite of so-called sophisticated findings. I
wanted to donate Ronald's organs (including cornea which we had willed long ago),
but the doctors at the KEM said that in septicaemia organs cannot be used. Then I
opted for post mortem, the final report of which is awaited. But the provisional
cause of death given is: “Acute renal failure in a case of acute febrile illness”.

We cremated Ronald on 23rd February evening at an electric crematorium without

religious mumbo-jumbo. In five minutes my handsome, healthy, young boy was turned
to ashes. Part of his ashes we immersed into the Gorai Sea -- completing the
process of mingling five elements into five elements.

Looking back, it appears that Modern Medicine has been totally commercialised to
fleece the relatives rather than to treat the patient with timely management. It
has only antibiotics, more antibiotics, steroids, anti-retrovirals and
chemotherapeutic agents. Occasionally synthetic vitamins. The consultants know
precious little about bed-side mannerism, they do not even consider it necessary
to consult the relatives or answer their questions. The institution and the
doctors have totally lost clinical touch, humanism and compassion.

Commenting on my son's death retired judge B.N.Dongre lamented, “Today doctors

have become mercenaries”. He said that he too was fleeced to the tune of Rs.6
lakhs by doctors, last year, who kept on doing experiments on his wife, so much so
that he finally got her home and she passed away after 15 days. “If she was in the
hospital for another 15 days, the expenses would have mounted to Rs.20 lakhs and
above”, he rued.

Mr. Dongre, 80, added, that one can atleast be cautious about advocates who wear
black coats, for they are known to defend clients for wrong deeds, some times.
“But when doctors wearing white coats indulge in black deeds, and fleece even good
persons and professional colleagues like you, it is about time we denounced this
menace of modern medicine with big time insurance racket, medicines at premium to
be bought only from the hospital chemist and unnecessary tests whether required or
not”.

WHAT IS DESTINY?
Was Ronald, our first son, born on 5th May, 1982, destined to die -- 24 years and
9 months later -- on 23rd February 2007? And why, when he lived a clean and
healthy life throughout?

In retrospect, the following hints suggest the cruel hand of destiny.

(a) His friends who had assembled to bid him a final goodbye reported with tearful
eyes that four years ago he had more than once told them that his life was short.

(b) His girl friend corroborated that more than once he had told her, too, of his
short life.

(c) Few days into bed with fever, Ronald insisted to call his uncles (my two
brothers Arthur and Benny).

(d) Sr. Anita Chettiar, his faculty at the Nirmala Niketan, who did so much during
Ronald’s illness, had written to him an email on 06/02 saying that she would like
to propose his name as the President of Nirmala Niketan Alumni Association, to
which he made his younger brother (Robin) reply, “I am critically ill and cannot
commit”.

(e) Ronald also made some comments which we brushed aside as delirium. He said to
his mother, “If I die, please distribute the money in my bank account to three of
my friends, and one NGO”, and he also discussed the amount to be donated. This we
have already done.

(f) He also told his mother, “you have been such a good mother, but now you will
have to look after me like a child” and “if I die I would like to be reborn to you
only”. I have since talked to Ronald in meditation that I am not going to release
his mother so soon and he should not tug her, or else it will mean a long wait for
him.

(g) And these two shocking statements, “how will I come out of this bed” (may be
he was seeing the hospital bed with gadgets, painful procedures, etc. and “see all
my friends have gathered for my funeral” (atleast twelve days before his actual
passing away).

(h) Ronald also told me, before he lost his speech on or around 16th February,
“Daddy you will become a great and popular leader”. Those were his last words and
my son never spoke again though he would listen and respond to everything that we
said.

Our promising son is no more. Good friends keep phoning and trying to engage us in
talk to lighten our loss by telling us various incidences from their lives, and
quotes. I have selected the following two quotes to sum up our tryst with
destiny.

“The simple physician is not aware the malady is deep in the heart”. Guru Nanak.
“Death is not extinguishing the light; it is putting out the lamp because dawn has
come”. Ravindranath Tagore.

Was the fever mysterious or life itself is a big mystery? Mystery is a merry-go-
round that makes us dizzy and we go to sleep; some to get up the next morning
refreshed, others like my son do not see another dawn.

“Life is short, you may also not get another human life, so make the most of it”
is the message that emerges.