The scandal at the fertility clinic

Dear Chacko,

In your mail you had made a casual reference to certain unethical practices allegedly followed in some of the fertility clinics in Chennai. Those allegations might turn out to be true. However, I recall the services of one Dr Nair, an expert gynecologist who practised in Trivandrum in the 1960's. He could bring hope and fulfillment to many a troubled couple there; yet, he too had come under the cloud from time to time for alleged unethical practices. 

Trivandrum Fertility Clinic

This Doctor had a brilliant career as professor of gynecology at a reputed medical college in the North. Soon after retirement from there he shifted to Trivandrum, his home town, and there he set up practice. His initial expectations were rather modest and he began with a small ten-room clinic.

From the beginning he had good many outstation patients, mostly from the North, and he was obliged to admit them as in-patients for the period of their diagnosis and treatment. It was clear that they had followed him from the North because of his high reputation there as a fertility expert. Local people took immediate notice of his Northern popularity; and his reputation soon spread in the city and beyond. And in no time the Doctor found it necessary to expand his room capacity. So he built an annex with thirty more rooms. However, after its construction, it seemed to him that it might take a little while to achieve full utilization of the rooms. So, in the meantime why not let out some half a dozen rooms for lodging by single men on a strictly temporary basis, so they would move at short notice?

I take lodging at the clinic

It was thus that I became a ‘guest’ in the hospital. (You are probably aware that I had a brief stint at a Trivandrum-based bank then.) There were some five others too like me lodging there. One was a professor in zoology attached to the university; another a young medical representative; there was a junior lecturer in the engineering college; then a senior journalist representing a well known newspaper published from Chennai (an Armenian gentleman); and there was a reputed cartoonist who regularly contributed to an elite Malayalam weekly - all of them friendly and socially agreeable persons.

Trivandrum was a small city then with limited scope for social and cultural entertainment. Television had not made its entry into India except in Delhi. So days would wear on for the inmates (i.e. the ‘inpatients’), without anything worthwhile to do. They spent their time by reading newspaper, listening to the radio, playing cards and indulging in gossip. Often they were seen sharing their problems and concerns and suspicions among themselves. Obviously it had not occurred to them that such uninformed sharing carried the risk of worsening their confusion. We the lodge-mates had several occasions to observe this firsthand.

Misunderstandings

To quote but one instance, a fine Sunday morning one such patient, a bank executive from Coimbatore, Ramachandran by name, approached us lodge-mates with his problem. This was the issue troubling him. He and his wife were childless for ten years after their marriage. They had consulted several doctors. None of them could identify the cause. “They said they could not detect any defect in either of us; so, both of us are perfect. In that case how is it that we don’t get children? Ten years simply wasted! Is this not time enough for my wife to become pregnant? None of the experts had an answer. Their standard explanation was that some thirty to forty percent of childless couples are individually fertile but together they are not! One pervert explained to us that if such couple would change partners, they could both have children! That means, I could get children from another woman, and my wife could have children from another man! Nonsense!! …. Now this Dr Nair has come out with a bizarre finding. He says my wife’s fallopian tubes are blocked. They need to be unblocked through an expensive operation.”

“So, you have got the answer now!” joined the medical representative with enthusiasm.

“That, you say, is an answer? This answer is worse than the question. You see, you are a bachelor. You won’t understand. I am a married man of 10 years’ standing. All these years I have come across just one fallopian tube in my wife. And my wife too swears by one tube. I have also consulted my fellow-inpatients here, especially some of the senior ones. They too are absolutely firm that a woman can have one and only one tube.”

“Then why don’t you ask the Doctor himself straightaway? Instead of taking the direct route, you blind fellows are seeking guidance from other blind guys?” observed the Armenian journalist. “If the Doctor has referred to any such tube in plural, he might have meant something else, some tube other than what you guys imagine within your limited horizon.”

Ramachandran was agitated. “No, no, no. It is not that simple. Now I’ll startle you with a secret about the Doctor himself, carefully kept by him under wraps. This man is childless himself, you know that?? He is purposely hiding this secret from his patients. It was his driver Gopalan who whispered this into my ears yesterday…. So, some of us have started wondering if the Doctor is not a fraud himself! Your Jesus Christ said a physician should heal himself before attempting to heal others…. Or, does it mean that his wife is a special woman equipped with two tubes and he thinks that every woman ought to have two like her?”

One of his friends, a school teacher from Trichur, now joined the conversation. “The strange irony is that this fertility expert could not father even one child from a woman gifted with two tubes! And he is the one who is treating ordinary women with just one tube to make them fertile!!” added the school teacher with sarcasm. “If this doctor has diagnosed a woman for two fallopian tubes instead of one, something is wrong with him. And we should leave the hospital forthwith.”

Our cartoonist-friend was busy all the while drawing something in his notebook.

Misunderstanding cleared

At this point the zoology professor appeared on the scene. He had just returned after attending the Sunday services at the Church. He could easily see that something was causing discomfort to the assembled group. The Armenian journalist explained the problem. The professor responded with an empathetic smile. And he proceeded to educate the agitated Ramachandran about fallopian tubes with the help of a diagram. I brought pencil and paper for him to draw.

The banker closely scrutinized the diagram and lifted his eyes to the quietly smiling professor. All of a sudden it dawned on him that fallopian tubes were really internal organs not visible from outside; that they were very fine tubes serving as conduits for conveying the eggs released every month from the two ovaries to the uterus; and that they had nothing to do with the ‘tube’ that he was familiar with!

The young engineer exclaimed, “What a bio-engineering marvel this!”

The cartoonist showed us the picture he was drawing. Ramachandran and his friend were turning their heads with a sheepish smile as they realized their mistake. He had caricatured that very scene, magnifying their extreme embarrassment.  Everyone had a hearty laugh.

Now, Chacko, I can see you laughing at the ignorance of even educated persons like the bank executive and the school teacher about things that have become commonplace knowledge these days. The explanation, to my mind, is simple. In our younger days the finer details of medical science had not reached the common man. And the people were not familiar with their body parts. You and I were delivered at home with the help of countryside midwives. And no one taught us human anatomy in school or college.

The bank executive left the clinic soon after the operation of his wife; and the teacher couple too left soon after.

A vicious scandal brewing in the meantime

The Doctor was methodically following up his patients after they were discharged from the hospital. The bank executive’s wife conceived within a month; and the teacher’s wife too. His success rate was better than expected. Soon this became the talk of the town. Then someone suspected something unethical in it. The earlier argument was revived. The doctor and his wife were themselves childless; and still he was good at his job with others. How could he be successful with his unsuspecting clients while he could not do anything for himself? There must be some foul play somewhere. His high success rate needed investigation!

We the lodgers were unaware of these gathering clouds. I heard it first from none other than my boss in the Bank. He was living in the neighborhood of the hospital, and it was he who initially suggested temporary lodging for me here pending arrangement at a regular lodge. However, for sometime now he had been suggesting that I should shift soon. And he sounded much concerned. I didn't know why. One Sunday evening he visited me at the lodge. And, taking me for a tour of the premises, he whispered it into my ears. It was a shock. The scandals were centred on us the bachelors lodging in the hospital complex. The gossip-peddlers had spread the canard that we were directly responsible for the Doctor’s unusual success.  I immediately shared this information with my lodge-mates. They were shell-shocked. All of us left the lodge within a week. The innocent doctor didn't know what hit us all at the same time!

The clinic thrived in spite of the scandals, and soon the room occupancy was full. There were patients in queue for admission.

Malicious driver checked out

Chacko, you must be wondering if I had had any contact with the Doctor after I left his lodging. Yes, I continued in touch with him. One day he informed me that he had checked out his trusted driver Gopalan. The man was interfering with his patients and dissuading them from continuing their treatment at the hospital on the grounds of alleged foul play by the Doctor. Then I remembered how cleverly this driver could fool even a hard-nosed banker like Ramachandran. I asked the Doctor what was his grouse. The Doctor showed no inclination to go into it. One might as well imagine it was some kind of genetic malice some people harbor against their employers and benefactors.

And, for the first time I wondered if it was not the genius of the same Gopalan that was behind the scandalous rumors concerning us who were lodging at the hospital!

A wedding reception

The last time I met the Doctor was just a month before I left Trivandrum for good. The occasion was his son’s wedding reception. The bride was his colleague at Harvard, a French national. The stellar attraction was his daughter. She was seen moving gracefully receiving guests. A stunningly beautiful young lady. As a bachelor I could not take my eyes off her. But her Punjabi husband was always around her. She was a university lecturer and he a medical doctor; they had come down from Delhi for the occasion.

So, my dear Chacko, one needs to be cautious about such scandalous stories. Given the opportunity, tongues tend to wag. More so in matters one doesn't understand. You must be familiar with the famous line in the book of James in the New Testament: "No one can tame the tongue; it is a restless evil and full of deadly poison".

The Chennai clinics you mentioned about might be employing unethical practices in their treatment of patients; but one may give them the benefit of doubt pending inquiry. Meanwhile, never take chances with them.

Trust things are fine with you.

Warm regards,

K X M John

18/06/2011