HYDERABAD: When 58-year-old patient, Gavkharjon Khafizova , from Uzbekistan landed in Hyderabad earlier this month — with no knowledge of English and limited resources — little did she know that a life-changing experience awaited her in the city. But courtesy technology, and a team of dedicated doctors, she sailed smoothly through her treatment, which turned out to be more complicated than what it initially appeared.

While Khafizova — among the first few medical tourists from that part of the world — came to the city hoping to undergo a knee replacement surgery, doctors at Udai Omni Hospital for Advanced Orthopaedics and Trauma soon discovered that she had three life threatening complications — liver failure, difficulty in breathing and low platelet count —in addition to the knee degeneration. What followed over the next 10 days was extensive doctor-patient interactions, but through google translate (an online translation tool).

“The patient had literally limped in to our hospital with a piece of paper, put on google translate and said she wanted surgery. From there on we discovered that she had other health issues. Explaining the technical complications and the procedures needed, to the family, was a challenge because of the language barrier. We had to find ways to do this,” said Dr M Krishna Prasad, lead anaesthetist at the hospital. He said how Gavkharjon is a perfect example of challenges that come with medical tourism as, much like several international patients, she too came with no investigations or health records.

Doctors had to find the medical history from scratch,use clinical skills and experience to assess the possible complications. Also, three added complications meant roping in other experts from hospitals across the city. “We had to first deal with the complications, before we could proceed with the knee replacement surgery. We discovered that she had a chronic liver disease which is not common among Indians,” said Dr Udai Prakash , director and specialist in joint replacement at Udai Omni Hospital sharing that Dr D V Srinivas (gastroenterologist) and Dr M Srinivas (cardiologist) from Care Hospitals were brought to assist in the treatment subsequently.

But there was yet another challenge — that of finances. With the patient running out of resources by the time the complications were dealt with — she sold a car and part of her property for it—the hospital decided to host her ‘as a guest’. Khafizova is currently at Udai Omni where her condition is stable. Her knee replacement surgeries too -one complete replacement and another partial - have been successfully carried out.

