Mr Stan Ayres
I contacted The Taj Medical Group in Warwickshire for help with
seeing a Cardiac Specialist in INDIA for my heart condition I
required a procedure called Radio Frequency Ablation.
Dipa Jethwa Dipa Jethwa of The Taj Medical Group made all the
arrangements for my wife and I to go to India - flights, visas,
consultations etc. - The Taj Medical Group referred me to see Dr.
Chetan P. Shah M.D. (Medicine), D.M. (Cardiology), FACC, FACP
(USA) a US Board Certified Surgeon at Wockhardt Hospital in
Mumbai.
I attended this hospital for investigations into my Atrial
Fibrillation, which I only became aware of in 2000 when I was 67
years of age. After 6 days of intensive research and every
conceivable test possible, they advised me that the possible short
term gain of reverting back into regular sinus rhythm could not be
sustained and the risks outweighed any possible short-term gain. I
appreciated their honesty and the fact that their decision was for
my benefit and to their financial loss.
Because I had seen the professionalism and dedication of all the
Medical and Nursing Staff, I had the confidence to request
consultations with the Urinary and Vascular Surgeons, who agreed
to resolve my Urinary/Prostate problems also to strip the varicose
veins from my right leg. These procedures were carried out
simultaneously and excellent aftercare in the ICU. During these
procedures the Cardiac Consultation/Surgeon was on call, should
there have been any remote problem arising. Having felt no pain at
all during or after surgery, stimulated me to have my hip x rayed,
the outcome was that it had completely calcified over the years
and should be operated on at a later date.
With less than 6 days to go before I left for the UK, I asked to
see the Dental Surgeon, she immediately spent three and a half
hours on my mouth, next day impressions were taken, following day
checks on the fit of the porcelain teeth produced and finally on
the fourth day she adhered the top and bottom sets of tooth on top
of the stumps of my old teeth. I could not have received such
excellent service from any other hospital throughout the world.
Right from being met at the airport in the early hours of the
morning the unmatchable care demonstrated by all the Nursing
Staff, the beds being changed and the suite being cleaned daily by
the boys, the friendliness and approachability of the consultants
and doctors, makes me unable to praise and thank them all
sufficiently. I am prepared to allow anyone to contact me at any
time to ask me questions about the events during my 20-day stay
with them. My wife slept in the same suite as myself, which
facility is available to husbands or wives, partners, relations
etc so that the patient has support from a loved one. In closing
the charges made were unmatchable in the UK or throughout Europe.
I assume this applies generally worldwide. We made friends there.
My sincere thanks to all concerned Dipa Jethwa at The Taj
Medical Group, the Surgeons and nurses at Wockhardt Hospital in
Mumbai.
Stan Ayres, N. Wales, UK
Mr Stan Ayres
Comprehensive Cardiac Evaluation plus Dental Treatment
June 2006
Mr Anthony Bestwick
Hi Dipa,
Yes, I'm well, thank you.
Perhaps you would like to use the attached story (see copy
below) I wrote for the AFIB Report?
As you will see, it summarises my AF story and also paints
Escorts and The Taj Medical Group in a favourable light.
The AFIB Report is available worldwide to all who suffer (or
have suffered from) Atrial Fibrillation from 1st June. Many will
read it. I hope it may
bring you further introductions in due course.
You can use this article free if you wish as long as you define
and acknowledge my authorship and copyright. I guess I can also
send you a photo
if you wish. If you wish to delete reference to the Medical
Tourist Company, that is OK as you were the people who arranged my
visit.
Best regards, Anthony
Mr Anthony Bestwick
Atrial Fibrillation
June 2006
The AFIB Report
June 2006
Page 7
My AF Story Or How it Zaps You When Youre Not
Looking
by Anthony Bestwick
My story starts some 12 years ago in those heady days when the
world didnt seem to have quite so many problems as it does now. I
was a 50 year old silversmith with my own small business in a
small town on the coast of Devon, in the south west peninsula of
the United Kingdom, and spent my leisure time collecting rocks,
exploring the old tin and copper mines of Devon and Cornwall,
playing the melodeon and bodhran in the local pubs, and flying
small aeroplanes from nearby Dunkeswell aerodrome, a one-time US
Navy wartime bomber base flying Liberators across the Bay of
Biscay.
I had been divorced for a few years after a long marriage and
was, emotionally, on the fragile side of neutral, though I doubt I
would have agreed with that if youd mentioned it then! As is the
way of these things Id eventually found myself with a new
girlfriend and that, dear reader, is where my story really starts.
We split up. Nothing really unusual about that, although it was
as always painful, but this split coincided with one of my
frequent bright (or, in this case, not-so-bright) ideas. Id lose
weight. Go on a diet. Not eat very much. In fact, not eat at all.
I certainly was not overweight at 13 stone (184Lb) but summer was
coming and I was determined to lose a few pounds to be able to get
into my summer shorts. Now, I dont know whether youve tried not
eating but I dont recommend it. In my case it brought on quite
persistent pangs of hunger and a distant rumbling from down-under
which, try as I might, I could not ignore. I cast around for some
way to lessen the noise and my gaze fell on &.. the coffee
maker, with its usual welcoming smile, in the corner of my
office-cum-workshop.
And so it came to pass that, in the same week as the emotionally
draining split from my girlfriend, I came to live on strong black
coffee as black as the night and as strong as the bond between
miser and dollar. The coffee machine happily worked overtime,
spewing out great mugs of the stuff in response to my
ever-increasing hunger pangs until I looked more like a coffee
picker than an English silversmith.
By the third day I began to suffer bouts of what I fondly thought
was indigestion, a general rumbling and banging inside which
reminded me very much of an old car I once had. I ignored it, and
carried on with the coffee therapy but by the following Monday, a
full seven days after the start of my crash diet, I felt unwell
enough to take the monumental plunge of visiting my local doctor,
to complain about my indigestion.
I duly arrived at the appointed hour, expecting indeed resigned
to be given some indigestion medicine and be sent on my way with
a flea in my ear for wasting his time. But no! Come in he said
you dont look terribly well. No I said I think Ive
overdosed on coffee and its given me indigestion. Well he said
lets just listen to your ..&. Nurse! he shouted get the
ECG equipment ready. And that, fellow afibber, was the first time
I knew Id got a problem!
To cut a long story short, my ECG showed the usual and I was
whisked off to the hospital in nearby Exeter, a rather grand place
smelling of disinfectant and full of ill people. I say whisked
but in the absence of any form of public transport including an
ambulance I was apologetically asked if I would make my own way
there, which I did. On arrival at the hospital I was taken to a
ward, made a fuss of, given a loading dose of sotalol and asked to
get into bed. Now, I have to confess that I dont like hospitals.
Even less do I like wearing pyjamas or getting into bed in the
daytime and anyway, I only had indigestion so this now became
a battle of wills. Im not taking my jeans off I said. You
must they said. I wont I said, Im not ill. Well, we
eventually compromised. My jeans didnt come off but I did
eventually get into bed, though only when it got dark. They didnt
really mind. They were very good.
I was hooked up to a variety of machinery and told that
cardio-reversion was going to be done the following day but,
during the night, my heart went back into sinus and the following
day, to my great relief, I was given my freedom and let out.
Before leaving Id had a long chat with a heart specialist who
told me that I had had Atrial Fibrillation, probably caused by too
much caffeine, and that it would probably now be a feature in my
life. One more thing he said Youd better tell the Civil
Aviation Authority about this.
I did, and they very unhelpfully suspended my flying medical
certificate. That was the first impact that AF had on my life.
There were to be others &&.
After discharge from hospital I had, as a follow-up, the usual
thyroid test and echo-cardiogram, all of which proved to be
normal. Slowly, I reverted back to my usual way of life and
resumed business as usual apart from the flying, which I really
missed. Months went by, and I started to think that it had all
been a bad dream. I began to rediscover my love of strong black
coffee when suddenly, out of the blue, wham! AF again.
This time the episode did not last long, just a few hours, but I
knew then that the original happening had not been a one-off and
that AF was probably here to stay.
In those far off days ablation was very much in its infancy in
the UK and only done for flutter to some extent it still is even
today, as we shall see so the solution put forward by medical
opinion in the form of the local doctor offered nothing more than
pills. True, there was available an intriguing variety of pills
and as many as I could eat, but pills are something else I dont
much care for. I decided this was not an option.
Months passed with a few minor episodes of AF, all of which
reverted to sinus within a fairly short time but which
nevertheless made me very conscious that I had a problem. As
these months passed I became more and more determined that the
solution for me would be to beat this thing on my own terms. I
began to realize that, to some extent and in some people, AF is
life-style problem and so I determined to find out, as far as was
possible, what might be triggering these episodes in me.
First, my coffee machine was consigned to history, though I
subsequently bought another when I realized you can make
thoroughly decent decaffeinated coffee which tastes just as good
as the stuff with caffeine! I had always taken several grams of
vitamin C a day but I now included a whole range of other vitamins
and health supplements and made serious efforts to determine what
part of my daily life might be causing my AF.
Eventually, through trial and error, I found that caffeine,
emotional sadness, hard cheese, bananas and sleeping on my left
side were the main triggers for me. Alcohol, to my delight and the
relief of the worlds wine growers, has never been a trigger but I
know that it is for many. I only ever drink red wine in moderation
and the occasional beer when playing my melodeon (though not at
the same time) so it may be that spirits do not agree with me, but
red wine and the odd beer certainly do.
Time passed and I formed a folk band with a banjo-playing friend,
and then a delightful lady who sings and plays the guitar also
joined the band. Dear reader, the course of true love ran true,
and this lady has now been my wife for the past 6 years. Happiness
does Im sure lessen the effects and frequency of AF but, to
counter that, the taxman certainly does not so I continued to have
the odd episode of AF as the months and years went by. And then, a
dear old friend died.
This friend was rather old and had been the best friend of my own
dear father, who had died when I was 13, so there was a great bond
of fondness between us, reinforced by the fact that he did not
himself have any family. By this time my wife and I had moved from
Devon to South West Wales, where we now live, so as soon as we
heard the sad news we drove the 200 miles to where he lived and
started to make arrangements for his funeral.
By the time I arrived, I was in the grip of the worst AF episode
I had ever had. My heart was fluttering, racing and banging like
an old tin can, I had no discernable pulse, and I was as white as
a sheet and feeling pretty low.
There was no alternative but to carry on with the arrangements
and attend the funeral but after that, in company with good
friends and with a glass of red wine, I began to feel better and
as I did so my heart reverted to sinus.
But it was a terrible shock and what has since followed, and the
subsequent operation to cure my AF, is all as a direct result of
knowing that extreme sadness was always going to trigger AF no
matter how well I looked after myself. Months passed without any
further serious episodes, but in my mind was the certainty that
sooner or later this thing would rise up and strike me again. Id
heard of catheter ablation and had been told that it offered the
best chance of a cure, so I made real efforts to see whether this
could be done for me free on our National Health Service. I say
free but of course although the NHS is free at the point of
contact we do pay for it through our taxes, and in my lifetime I
must have paid for the operation many times over.
Although kind and considerate and ready to offer a whole
warehouse full of pills the NHS bless them, they only get 90
thousand million pounds sterling a year in funding simply could
not offer me catheter RF ablation for AF. They might, just might,
have been able to offer flutter ablation if Id waited until I was
dead, but what would be the point of that when I needed AF
ablation and wanted to get on with my life now?
The next avenue to explore was to see if the operation could be
done privately within the United Kingdom at reasonable cost and in
a reasonable time scale. Nope! £15,000 and a long wait if
you were lucky enough to find someone needing to practice the
operation, in an environment where AF ablation is a pretty new
science. First of all, £15,000 was simply off the board I
dont actually believe theres that much money in the world and
secondly, Id prefer not to be somebody elses learning curve. So,
what to do? The usual well-known centers of medical excellence
such as the USA, Canada, France and Germany were all very
expensive or still learning how to respond to emails. It seemed I
had reached an impasse and was doomed! And then, like a sunbeam
bursting through clouds, I discovered India!
India, as many will know, is a land of gentle friendly
intelligent people. It is a pragmatic land, an emerging world
power and more importantly the worlds largest democracy. A
land of the future certainly, but not, in my mind, a world centre
of excellence for medical procedures.
How wrong I was! A few simple clicks on my computer and the
amazing medical facilities of India lay before my eyes - and there
it was! At the Escorts Heart Institute and Research Centre (EHIRC)
in New Delhi I could get RF catheter ablation for AF, including
carto-mapping, for the all-inclusive price of £2,300.
I contacted the Taj Medical Group within the UK, who can
facilitate arrangements for medical procedures in India, and
within days I had made the decision to go to EHIRC and have the
full works. Arrangements were soon made and within weeks of
discovering the medical facilities of India I found myself at
Heathrow Airport in London going through the interminable Take
your belt off. Take your keys out. No, dont let your trousers
fall down, shuffle through that archway but necessary security
checks before boarding an overnight flight to New Delhi with the
excellent Virgin Atlantic.
There can be few finer things than to arrive in India,
bleary-eyed from an overnight flight, in the morning rush-hour!
Well, perhaps a few but the first thing I saw on leaving the
baggage reclaim, apart from a few welcoming flies and the lovely
sunshine, was a smiling young Indian holding up a board upon which
was written my name in very large letters. Yes, EHIRC had sent a
chauffeured car, and the head of their hospitality department, to
whisk me off to the hospital! Despite the traffic and the odd cow
we arrived and, after a few formalities, I was shown to a spotless
room with panoramic views of New Delhi - and a daunting array of
medical machinery on the wall above the bed.
I had many visitors during my stay, and without any doubt,
received VIP treatment from everybody. Tests started almost
immediately, and I was wheeled down to various laboratories over
the next two days for a variety of procedures which were designed
to diagnose my condition exactly and determine the treatment
required. My only real problem was with the enormous baggy white
draw-string two-part smock everyone has to wear, which needs a
masters in cunning if you are to avoid it falling down to your
ankles every few minutes. I never quite got the hang of it. They
probably still talk about it. The tests, apart from one, were all
quite reasonable and very thorough. I was always wheeled to these
tests by two or three impossibly young but excellently trained
nurses, one to push, one to make sure I didnt fall out and
probably one to make sure my smock stayed up. The hospital was
very busy they do over 500 catheter ablations per year plus
every other form of heart surgery including pediatric and was
highly efficient and superbly well organized.
India, as you will know, is a land of Tigers and Elephants. The
Tigers tend to snack off people so are avoided but Elephants are
very popular. They come in all sizes, are usually grey and most of
them have trunks. I say most because some must be missing their
trunks because that, dear reader, is what they put down your
throat when they do the transesophageal echocardiogram - and they
must be from fully-grown Elephants, too.
My surgeon was the brilliant Dr. Balbir Singh, principal
consultant cardiologist working with the world famous heart
surgeon Dr. Naresh Trehan and, all tests being OK, my operation
was scheduled for the following day.
Everything went well. The AF was induced, carto-mapped and
ablated, and after 4 hours I was wheeled into catheter recovery
for a very welcome cup of tea. The operation itself consists of
feeding 4 catheters up through veins in your groin into your
heart, which sounds scary but is in fact quite OK. The surgeon
then induces the AF and maps the electrical conductivity of the
heart to determine the areas to ablate, and then zaps these areas
with RF energy.
The hospital was superbly equipped and the surgeons, doctors and
nurses are clearly as good as any in the world. The food was
excellent, with a choice of continental or Indian cuisine (I had
fish curry every day. Id go back just for that!) and the care and
cleanliness is exceptional, the hospital priding itself on a 0.3%
infection rate. Following my ablation I had a 24-hour Holter
monitoring and then, when that was complete and the results
checked I was pronounced free to leave. I could have stayed on in
India the Taj Mahal is not far way and the hospital would
gladly have arranged things for me but my wife was at home in
Wales so I was keen to return. Normally, when I find myself in a
land of sunshine and about to board a plane to return to rain and
grey skies, I have to be forced aboard and chained to my seat but
this time the allure of my wife made me happy to skip aboard for
the 8 hour flight to London and the inevitable rain. I had been in
India altogether for 5 days, but it seemed rather longer.
As I write this it is now just three months since I returned from
India. I was told by Dr. Balbir Singh that the heart can take this
long to heal and settle down, but I have experienced no problems
so far and I am confident, as is Dr. Balbir, that my AF really has
been ablated. Time will tell, but as each day passes my confidence
increases. Did I make the right decision to go to India?
Definitely. Five days in an excellent air-conditioned room with
panoramic views, satellite TV, Internet facilities and all the
tests and treatment for £2,300 sterling (less than 4,000
USD) was simply amazing. Would I recommend the medical facilities
of India to anyone else who needs treatment that they cannot get
or cannot afford in the affluent west? Certainly, without doubt.
There are many world centers of excellence in India offering
almost every medical procedure.
As far as one can enjoy these things, I did enjoy my trip to
India. From the excellent Virgin Atlantic flight to the
friendliness and competence of the hospital staff, from the
delicious food to the friendships made, from the sunshine to the
allure of a new and exciting land yes, I did enjoy it. But I
will never be able to look at an Elephant in quite the same way
again and I will never, but never again, wear a huge and baggy
white two-piece draw-string smock with a mind of its own!
Anthony Bestwick: Anthony.bestwick@btinternet.com
Escorts Heart Institute and Research Centre website:
www.ehirc.com
The Taj Medical Group: info@tajmedicalgroup.co.uk
______________________________________________________________
The AFIB Report
June 2006
Page 11
THE AFIB REPORT is published 10 times a year by:
Hans R. Larsen MSc ChE, 1320 Point Street, Victoria, BC, Canada,
V8S 1A5
E-mail: editor@afibbers.org
World Wide Web: http://www.afibbers.org
Copyright 2006 by Hans R. Larsen
THE AFIB REPORT does not provide medical advice. Do not attempt
self-diagnosis or self-medication based on our reports.
Please consult your healthcare provider if you are interested in
following up on the information presented.
Mr Russell Aiton
Russ
5 weeks post surgery
Russ with his wife, Joy in Bangalore, India BEFORE
surgery
Dear Dipa,
Many thanks for procuring the revised letter for me.
I have just returned from my GP appointment. His opening
statement was "you
look bloody marvellous!" the second commented on the two
stone in weight I
have lost and thirdly was an invite to sit down and tell him all
about my
experience!
I told him that the Taj Medical Group care package was exemplary
in its
organisation and the medical care at the hospital excellent.
Mention was
made of cultural differences in understanding/empathising with
the (Western)
carer during the stressful times, but that support from the UK
Team was
decisive and effective in managing these issues. Yes, I told
him...I would
do it again!
I discussed with him my drug and post Op protocols and will be
seeing,
probably privately, my Cardiac Consultant in the not too distant
future. All
in all, everything is very positive and going in the right
direction.
Dipa, if there is anything I can do, write, comment on for you
and your
company, or even be available for prospective patients
contemplating going
abroad for any surgery, I would be more than happy to provide a
balanced and
honest view point for them (whilst still in the UK :-)!).
If you don't mind, I'd like to drop you an email as we progress
along the
recovery and immigration roads.
Once again many, many, thanks for the life changing opportunity
you made
available to Joy and I.
Best and kindest regards
Russ
Russell Aiton, Carnoustie, Angus, Scotland
Mr Russell Aiton
Coronary Artery Bypass Graft (CABG) Surgery
September 2007
