Dr. Gandhi’s Diagnostic Clinic

I’ve been going with Samir Mama to his clinic for a week now, during which I must have seen him perform over 100 sonographies on a wide variety of patients. All of the patients are referred to Mama’s clinic by other doctors who want sonographies or X-rays done in order to make a clinical diagnosis, so Mama doesn’t spend much time talking to the patients about the results of the exam, he writes up a report for the patient to take to their regular doctor. This means that each patient exam doesn’t take too long, which is good because he sees a lot of patients. Yesterday alone, he performed over 30 sonographies, while a technician in the next room took over 20 X-rays.

The majority of patients are either pregnant women coming in for check-ups or patients’ complaining of some sort of stomach pain. I find the pregnant women to be the most fascinating patients, it never gets boring to see the tiny fetus’s heart beating, or to watch it move its hands or feet. The whole idea of what sonography can do is amazing, the ability to look inside a person without any incisions or surgery. It’s almost like a magic wand that can open a window into the body. I’ve gotten pretty good and understanding some of the images, like recognizing the kidneys, the liver, gallbladder, and other organs. Mama has also seen some interesting obstetric cases, such as a fetus with anencephaly, or the lack of a brain beyond a primitive brain stem, and another fetus an interuterine-femur deficit, or the failure for the femur to develop. Both were sad cases, but what made them even more tragic was that the mothers-to-be were unaware of their babies’ condition because they had never gotten routine check-ups earlier in their pregnancy.

After I return from visiting family in Akola, I’ll start shadowing a gynecologist, Dr. Mahesh Asher whose clinic is across the street from Mama’s clinic. There I’ll get to see some deliveries and C-sections, as well as observe Dr. Asher meet with his patients to discuss their pregnancies. I’ve already gotten to meet Dr. Asher a couple of times, since Mama goes to his clinic on Wednesdays to do sonographies. He seems like a very nice man, and he and Mama have been good friends and colleagues for over a decade.