Below is the English transcription of the video Interview by Jacob Hoxie who visited BTFCC in August 2019. The Patient and his son are speaking in maithili – the most frequently spoken local language in Province 2.
00: 38 – Interviewer – Tell us your name, his name, and about his condition
Son of patient 00:43 – My name is Sanjay Kumar Mandal, my father’s name is Sri Shiv Charan Mandal
Interviewer – where are you from?
Sanjay (son of patient) 00:52 to 58: I am from Mahottari – Ramgopalpur, Ward No 3, Gulathi Village
00:59 – Interviewer – what is the problem with your father?
Sanjay (son of patient) 01:00 – The problem is that we took him to Sithamrhi, India where they couldn’t tell what the illness was. (01:07:23), then we came to this hospital and this illness (transcriber inference: this illness = cancer) was found. Then we became 100% sure that this was the illness. Doctor told us we have good treatment for it, but when we brought him here, they gave him chemotherapy.
(01:22:06). It improved, but what happened is that because of unsuitable food he ate, he had stomach problem – after that the villagers told me “this is a small hospital, why do you want to waste your time? Take him somewhere else, take him to Bharatpur – they treat all kinds of patients”
(01:42:16). I took him to XXX hospital but his condition didn’t improve – didn’t improve at all and everyday his situation got worse and worse. Then I got him discharged from there
(01:59:06) and talked to Dr. Anshu Kumar at this hospital, and he said “bring the patient here and I will see what his situation is and recommend treatment accordingly.”
(00:2:07:06). Then we got discharged from there and came here. After coming here my dad’s situation was really bad – he couldn’t even talk, he would vomit all the time – I mean he was like unconscious. We had given up any hope – we were very stressed about his situation
(02:26:04). Then we brought him here, and talked to the Doctor and he said we can give him treatment and he will feel better. Now he is 90% better out of 100%. Before I had to take him to the toilet, he couldn’t even stand without help – yes, now he is so much better
(02:54:04). A lot. Now I am very hopeful that he will improve. He got very good treatment here, I am ….(03:07:12).
Interviewer: Pleas ask him how he feels now
Sanjay (Son) 03:08:06 – Papa, how do you feel, any problems? How has your health improved from before?
Patient: (03:11:19) – I feel so much better. It has improved al to compared to before, now I even eat food 3-4 times, i go to the bathroom myself, I go upstairs myself, walk around by myself. My legs are swollen a little bit so I have a little bit problem but my body has no problem right now. I used to have lots of gas before, I no longer have gas problem (03:33:02).
Sanjay (son) – He would vomit 10 times in a day
Patient – I also have appetite now (03:37:04)
Sanjay – But now he doesn’t vomit at all, he also has some energy, he is now walking around himself – because of that I am confident that he is good now (03:50:14).
Interviewer – How long has it been since you have been in and out of the hospital?
Sanjay (04:08;15) – Now that we have had 2 chemotherapy here … 14 days… lump sum …. we were at outside hospitals for 15 days in-between – it takes time to come and go – we wasted 2 weeks at Bharatpur Hospital
Interviewer – how many days did you stay there?
Sanjay 04:26:03 – There we stayed 11 days, then 2 days for traveling – 15 days or something like that we just wasted. 5-10 days we also wasted at home. Lump sum 25-30 – I mean about a month we had a gap (04:40:21).
Sanjay – Then after that we came here. But now we are good (04:50:17).
Sanjay – 05:05:06 – For the people in my village, they are suspicious – this is a new hospital, they don’t know if there is a doctor or not. I think people in the village should also think that we have such a good hospital here, we should go there. But that thing…(05:21:08)
Interviewer ( interrupting) – You are getting treatment here, what do you wish we did better? Did you have any problem? Financially?
Sanjay (05:30:12) – Here we had no problem. Service is good, we have no problem with doctors or sisters (nurses) – all of them have very good behavior.
Interviewer – Is everybody treating you well?
Sanjay – Yes. Everybody is very nice. (05:46:14). There is no complaint about anyone’s behavior, it is very nice. (05:51:02). What else do we need? Everybody behaves well with us. No, we don’t have any problem. (00:06:00:05).
Interviewer – When you went to Chitwan
Sanjay – Yes, what did you say?
Interviewer – You went to Chitwan, right?
Sanjay – Yes
Interviewer – Did your father feel better when he was in Chitwan?
Sanjay – No, nothing improved there. (06:28:08). His condition even worsened. That is why I ran away from there (06:34:00). Then I called the doctor at this hospital – then he gave me hope – he said you come here and we will see what we can do. Then I was trying to get him discharged from there but they were not discharging him. They said they will shift him to BP Koirala Memorial Cancer Hospital, the same doctor sends to private hospitals. I told him don’t send us anywhere, you just discharge us.
(07:00:03). I don’t have money, I will take him home. In my mind, I wanted to come here. Then he said he will help us get one lakh rupees discount in chemotherapy at BP Koirala Memorial cancer Hospital. he said – It will be like free for you. I told him in this situation I don’t want to give him chemo because the doctor had told us that you can not give chemo to a weak person and looking at his situation I didn’t know if he will make it
(00:07:28:00). Because of that stress I discharged him from there and ran away (00:07:32:06). But I talked to this doctor – he gave us a lot of hope and he gave such great treatment and my father’s condition has improved so much…so much
(07:43:11). I am.. I am confident that he is good now. He walks around, goes to the toilet himself – so I am 100% confident that my father is good now. He is taking care of himself
(00:07:55:14) – he hadn’t eaten for 25 days – 15..11 days in the hospital he didn’t eat anything at all. He got saline infusion – the way the doctors said – this is his vitamin
(08:06:01). I said how long will it last? He was not eating at home for 10-12 days and he is not eating here at the hospital, I feel this is a big problem.
patient – (08:16:00) – I got 4 bottles of Intra venous fluid everyday.
Sanjay – And very lethargic and vomiting continuously – he would vomit 8-10 times a day, nothing comes out just gas (08:32:010).
patient – (08:36:00) – That saline made my legs swell
Sanjay -( trancriber comment : time overlap with patient here until the next time stamp) And nothing improved. But I talked to the Doctor here. (08:41:00), Doctor. at this hospital. I talked to him on the phone and he gave me hope, then I took my father from there and left that hospital.
(08:09:08). If I listen to others in the village they say you are going to a small hospital in Janakpur to save money, it is new, we don’t know much about this hospital. I also didn’t know but I came here (08:59:23).
I am going to tell people that lotus can be found in muddy ponds (09:06:08).
Because of that, I lost hope in everyone else. I came here with hope (09:08:23) …… I am happy here.