Over the weekend I heard the story of one family that suffered due to the negligence of the staff and misdiagnosis by the doctors at Apollo hospital.

This family had admitted this pregnant lady to Apollo due to some complications. The learned doctors at Apollo who examined her have said that it is a result of Chikungunya and given her medication. As her condition became worse they needed to do a scan and due to the baby they could not do it. After performing a caesarean and then a subsequent scan on the mother revealed cancer to the heart, lungs, spine and spreading into the brain.

Before the lady was transferred to the Maharagama Cancer Hospital the family faced another tragedy when the other 7 year old son by accident got into the fire exit. He has been shouting and screaming from inside the fire exit and the security were of the impression that the boy is playing the fool from inside the fire exit. The boy had fallen off the stairs and fell down about 4 floors and suffered extensive brain damage. Later on at night on the same day the boy had succumbed to his injuries. Upon hearing the tragedy, the boys grandmother who is the mother of the lady who has cancer died of shock.

I do not think it is fair to fully blame hospital authorities for the death of the boy but the they should have been more vigilant when they heard the boy shouting. It baffles to think that the doctors had diagnosed complications from an advanced stage of cancer as Chikungunya. I think we should be careful and should think twice about admitting a loved one to Apollo since there have been many cases of misdiagnosis reported here.

Apollo Hospitals India is known as one of the best in the world and there is something really wrong with the Sri Lankan branch and these problems existed even when Apollo India was managing it and after the takeover by Harry Jayawardena things do not seem to have improved at this hospital.