No human values

No human values

Last year, my family told me that my dad’s only sister had been hospitalized due to having some heart issue. They told me to pray for her, and that she was in lots of pain. I asked my family what kind of heart issue? They told me 3 of her heart walls had complete blockage. The doctor told her and her family to have an open-heart surgery.  She didn’t have health insurance and heart surgery is very expensive. Just like all over the world if you don’t have insurance, medical bills are very expensive. Somehow her family managed the money and they wanted to make sure her mother was getting the best treatment as possible. They took her to a very nice hospital and they made sure that the surgeons who were going to perform surgery were well practiced.

After the surgery she started to recover well and was feeling much better. A couple of months later she was started having pain in her heart again.  Her kids took her to the family doctor and after testing they found out that the surgeon didn’t follow the procedure correctly. He put in two correct stems in her heart but the third one was cheap and harmful to her heart. She was in a lot of pain and so a different heart doctor told them that she needed to have surgery again so they can change the stem.

After I arrived to Pakistan she was hospitalized in the CCU (Cardiac Care Unit) and once again her kids were trying to manage the money as soon as possible. When my sister and I went to see her she seemed very happy to see us. We had a short but nice visit. Two days later she had heart surgery again. According to her son after her surgery while she was in the recovery room her heart was bleeding.  Doctors tried whatever they could to stop it, but they weren’t that successful. They had to open her heart again and burn her veins so her bleeding could stop. She lost lots of blood and she needed blood right away.  Somehow the family donated the blood but at this point the doctors told her family that her lungs aren’t working properly. After two days being on ventilators, the doctors told her family that both of her kidneys had failed so she needs to have dialysis.  Once again the family started making calls and somehow got the money and she started having dialysis while she was on ventilation. My sister and I went to see her in the hospital. We couldn’t visit her because she was in the ICU but we end up visiting with her son.  Three days later at midnight we got a call that she passed away.  Yesterday was her funeral we all went, it was very sad for me and for the family.

After her funeral happened, the whole family was sitting and talking about her. Her son and family said that the hospital wouldn’t release her body until they paid every single penny. Another interesting thing I found out was that they were informed of her passing late at night. The hospital took her off ventilation without informing the family and they did it when the family wasn’t there so that the family wouldn’t create a scene. They didn’t tell the family beforehand because they wanted an open bed for the next patient; it was all about the money.

I am an eyewitness to my own aunt’s death but in Pakistan these kinds of stories were pretty common. When a sick person goes to the hospital and the hospital notices that this family will pay for whatever their family member needs, they will use the family for their own benefit. People call these doctors “white crime collars”, I was shocked and embarrassed that this was happening.  

  This whole thing was and still is new to me so while I was still with my family I had them answer all of the other questions I had. . Every single detail was shocking to me.  The hospital charges a lot to the family but actually it’s all fraud. It costs very little but once they get the money from the family, it’s divided among the doctors. Everyone knows about it.

It’s sad to see that here in Pakistan people would do anything for money. They aren’t poor people they are high/middle class people. They have no fear of God. And the situation is getting worse. There is no affection or kindness for the family emotionally, mentally, or for their financial struggles. My mind can’t comprehend how one human can do such a horrible, ethical thing to another human.