I finished my MD medicine in January 1993 and with a significant load of work experience in critical care medicine I was instrumental in starting the 1st Multi speciality hospital of Raigad District with a 8 bedded ICU named Paramount Clinic and Medical Research Centre. My youthfull energy exuded lots of confidence as I had handled very complicated and difficult cases in municipal hospitals of Mumbai , little did I know that private practice will come with its own bag full of challenges.

Managing complex medical cases, delivering difficult news to patients, balancing patient expectations with clinical limitations, dealing with ethical dilemmas, managing high-pressure situations, maintaining work-life balance, and staying updated with rapidly evolving medical knowledge were big challenges that I faced.

I will share a case that I handled way back in 1994 . This was the time when Cidco had purchased a lot of land from the local population. Money brought about arrogance and aggression and that reflected in the tone and body language of some such people when they were admitted in the hospital. This patient was the father of a big time politician and he was admitted in the wee hours of the morning. Since he was critical he was refused admission by 3 hospitals in Panvel before somebody referred him to my ICU . He had chestpain and was in a state of Shock with a Blood Pressure of 80 / 60. His ECG revealed a heart attack and I explained the seriousness of the problem to the patient’s relatives. Those were not the days of Primary Angioplasty and we used to give only Thrombolysis i.e clot dissolving injections to the patient. I explained the risks involved and within no time there were not less than 500 people outside the hospital. Few of them came upto me and said – if anything goes wrong we will burn the hospital. I tried to be bold and told the relatives if you feel you should shift the patient to Mumbai you may do so , that brought in more aggression – Doctor you are telling he is critical and if dies on the way we will kill you.

Without wasting time and with a prayer on my lips I thrombolysed the patient and waited with bated breath. My prayers were answered and within 2 hours the chestpain subsided , Blood Pressure stabilised and the patient was salvaged. I had become a hero. There were celebrations all around and people started distributing sweets , the patient was shifted to Ruby Hall Clinic Pune and I heaved a sigh of relief.

As I sit back and reflect today on those days when we started our journey 31 years ago in Panvel , it was not easy but over years different challenges have evolved and I will share my various experiences in my future blogs.