Ruthless repayment

"A life was saved. But humanity took a dive,” noted a four-page article in the monthly, Citadel Pune (April 2005) reporting on the disrespect and manhandling of octogenarian Dr Keki B. Grant at his Ruby Hall Clinic following non-clearance of a bill by a patient who having been rushed into the hospital in a precarious condition, was not asked to pay the requisite deposit amount.

A month later, the patient Prakash Phulare, now recov­ered, was reportedly standing with a group of protestors led by politico Sagar Dhole-Patil cussing the hospital, the doctors and Grant, protesting the unfair billing in the life-saving treatment and demanding a complete waiver. Phulare had reportedly made his first payment by cheque for Rs 2,00,000 which bounced.

Grant: "quite dejected”

Thereafter the billing department insisted on cash payment so he paid one and a half lakhs in cash but the remaining two lakhs continued to be outstanding, according to the Citadel Pune report. With the bank too forcing him to pay, an agitated Phulare and his suppor­ters took to the streets. On learning of this gathering of 80-100 people creating a commotion near the Dhole Patil Chowk, Grant got into his car and asked his driver to take him to the scene. Grant invited Dhole-Patil to Ruby Hall to settle the matter civilly. As Grant reminisced for Citadel Pune, "He agreed and we traveled back to the Ruby Hall with a big crowd in tow. When they came here, they rushed inside like the tsunami along with Sagar; and started a commotion in the lobby. Some of them even started pulling me in various directions. It’s lucky I didn’t fall down. Then they went after my chief executive officer Bomi Bhote and delivered a few blows on his chest and then pushed him into his office and closed the door. Meanwhile I was still in the gherao when one of my secretaries Vaishali intervened and took me to my office. But these people followed us and demanded that I waive the bill completely or they would burn the hospital. So I told Vaishali to get the bill and did as they wished following which the crowd dispersed.” The police came in almost an hour after the incident. Apparently the following day Sagar came and touched Grant’s feet but a disillusioned Grant told Citadel Pune, "I am quite dejected and frustrated by the behavior of that mob which ironically even included Phulare, the guy whom we had treated so well!”

According to Dhole-Patil’s statement to the Press, "The association between the Grants and my family goes back a long way. Boss (Dr Grant) is not only like my grandfather, but he also looked after my father and he is someone whom we revere as god...If we wanted to reduce the bill we could have put the pressure through ministers — but we didn’t do that — because the Ruby Hall Clinic not only saved Phulare who is a man from a modest background but also completely cured him. They didn’t give him any discounts and I didn’t ask for any either...We could have asked for a discount during his discharge but I said no and instead gave them a security cheque amounting to two lakh rupees because that man Bhote wasn’t allowing the poor man to go home! It was a cheque made purely for security reasons. How in the world was I to know that they would present it to the bank?...The dispute was over the balance amount...Bhote decided to pick up a fight with us but we kept our peace because of Dr K. B. Grant. When he found out about the issue he asked me, ‘Why did you go to this guy? You should have come to me straight off.’ He then proceeded to waive off the remaining amount much against my protests.”

An unpacified Bhote told Citadel Pune, "Nobody among the bystanders, or the staff members, except these two women (Vaisha­li Rane and Hansa Kothak) protected him from the mob. This is the man (Grant) whom the city honored with a Punyabushan not more than two months ago...Everybody is only giving lip service, they said sorry to him and touched his feet but nobody ­— neither the NCP (National Congress Party) nor this guy whose life was saved are talking about paying the bill.”

The genesis of this episode, according to the Citadel Pune, can be traced to last Novem­ber when Phulare, a member of the NCP, had been rushed to Grant’s Ruby Hall Clinic from the government run Sassoon Hospital in a critical condition after he had been shot point blank in the chest while at a meeting with a member of another political party at Hotel Parichay. As recollected trauma surgeon Dr Jayashree Todkar, the patient collapsed at the door as he was being wheeled into the operation theater but they managed to successfully resuscitate him before proceeding with the operation despite his lungs, pericardium, diaphragm, spleen, left lobe of the liver, stomach and colon being ruptured. "Slowly holding his heart in our hand — literally — we pumped blood into his body and slowly his BP (blood pressure) came up, the responses started... he could be stabilized within the next eight days. By day 15 of the operation he was sent home. It was a very good recovery and for us too, it was nothing short of magic!” Todkar conveyed to Cita­del Pune saddened by the subsequent developments, "It’s an unfor­tunate thing to have happened to this hospital and to someone of Dr Grant’s stature.”