Corporate Hospitals & Mortal Doctors

Escorts & Naresh Trehan hogged all the TV channel headlines & print headlines for over a fortnight. I was remembering my own recent stint at a Corporate Hospital. This is just to reiterate that run-ins with Corporate hospitals can be damaging to your career. About three years ago I was offered a challenging portfolio in a Corporate hospital to set-up a state-of-the-art IVF unit. It was hard work but I enjoyed the challenge of getting the team together & the act together. We had to our credit India's first Trans-ethnic surrogate pregnancy recorded from this young unit. A Singaporean couple went home with a healthy baby boy who spent 9 months in an Indian mother's womb. The hospital Press - Release was as follows:
An overseas couple who are ethnically Chinese, had opted to undergo surrogacy at the Center for Human Reproduction in 2005. An Indian surrogate mother delivered a healthy baby boy on 19.05.06 at 3:30am. Both baby and mother are healthy and doing well. This is the first documented Trans-ethnic Surrogacy Pregnancy successfully delivered on the Indian sub-continent. The doctors who led this successful medical breakthrough are Dr.Gautam Allahbadia, Chief Consultant , Center for Human Reproduction and Dr. Yashodhara Mhatre, Consultant, Center for Human Reproduction. The team included Dr. Anita Soni, who was the Obstetrician who delivered the baby.
In 2007 March , I was shocked to read the Hospital Magazine released on their annual day. The Trans-ethnic surrogacy case was one of the three achievements of the hospital since inception. In the "Our Achievements" section, an entire color page was dedicated to this medical miracle with a one inch title credit. And to my surprise, the title credit carried only my erstwhile associate's name. What disheartened me most was that everyone connected with the hospital knew that I was the IVF team leader & had planned the protocol & done the Embryo Transfers. No one spoke up for me. Immediately there-after I was told I was not getting enough work to the Dept. & that I was travelling excessively & the hospital wanted a full-time doctor who would not practice outside the hospital. I left with a smile on my face & a tear in my eye. I loved the challenge of setting up a successful Dept.
Anyways destiny always takes care of its own children! I loved the place & continue to refer patients there. God Bless!