Sharing an experience about a case contrasting medical facilities in India v/s US. This might be a one off case but I am sharing this for people who think we are far far behind in healthcare

A very good friend of mine was admitted with accelerated hypertension in one of the reasonably good hospitals in US, he was found to have creatinine of 2.4, aged around 40 years

Timeline: It’s been 48 hours since he is admitted and USG was done today, renal Doppler not done, Echo not done, Nephrologist not seen, he has potassium abnormalities and Endocrine work up not yet. He is not aware what would be done next, not counselled about Renal work up.

Simple urine routine not yet done. Of course all these might be eventually done

He was found to be hypertensive 6 to 7 years back, when he was around 34 and USG, Echo not done.

If it was here in Bagalkot (I am writing Bagalkot because Bangalore or any other bigger cities it would be at a much different pace again) - He would have got Echo, Renal USG and doppler within 6 hours, and first thing I would have done was Urine routine.

Within 24 hours I would have done his renal biopsy

Also remembering one more incident when someone known to me had irreducible and obstructed painful hernia which we could diagnose over the video call, he had to wait until morning to reach urgent care clinic where he was seen by a paramedic, and then advised to go to emergency.

not even a word was spoken about hernia until he got all the scans done including CT scan. It was just a clinical diagnosis and it costed him 30000 USD (of course insurance paid for his treatment)

It took 2 to 3 days and he had to figure out which hospital accepted his insurance etc etc, here in India it would have costed 30,000 INR and he would have been operated within the next 12 hours.

P.S. I am not criticising US healthcare, or saying anything wrong about it, it’s a great nation and whatever we study including books or latest evidence or research most of it comes from developed nations but this post is for those who feel we are totally behind in healthcare.

This post is for those who criticise India and all that is Indian