Dr. H.K. Bali
Honest and forthright to his profession for decades, advances in cardiology with newer innovation; Dr. H.K. Bali, Director cardiology unit at Fortis Hospital details on lifestyle changes that are a prerequisite for a healthy and hearty living.
Rubika Bedi
- From being a professor at PGI to now being the director of cardiology unit at Fortis Hospital, Mohali, How has your journey been till now?
PGI days were special and I owe everything as a doctor and a cardiologist to my training and experience as a cardiology consultant there. Since the time I have joined corporate hospitals, first as Director cardiology Fortis hospital I have had immensely satisfying experience in the service of ailing humanity. It is very difficult to compare the two experience as patients coming to PGI are very different from those coming to corporate hospitals. In my experience tertiary care Corporate hospitals are doing a wonderful job bringing the latest treatment techniques to our patients. With state of art machinery and devices available to me, I have been able to do complex cardiac procedures with a very high success rate and safety. Today we are able to offer coronary interventions to patients who were considered ‘ no option’ patients till recently. Similarly we are able to replace heart valves without surgery like Transcutaneous aortic valve replacement ( TAVR)I have had an opportunity to set up Heart Team which includes cardiologists, Cardiac surgeons and cardiac anesthetists to treat patients having complex heart diseases.
- You have to deal with a number of patients with a lot of emotional stress and trauma. How do you handle that?
Most patients have emotional stress and trauma and we treat them with compassion and empathy. Our team includes specialists in managing psychological components of the disease and treat patient’s disease as well as the psychological component comprehensively
- Reminiscing old days, share some memories from your medical school days.
I have great memories of my medical school days. From the excitement of seeing my first patient to the contentment of diagnosing something which my seniors had missed, the list is indeed pretty long. I distinctly remember one of my ‘ clinical bedsides’ when I was in fourth year. Those were the days when clinical diagnosis was most important and there were very few imaging techniques available. There was a patient of liver disease in whom amoebic liver abscess had been diagnosed and he was awaiting drainage of the ‘ liver abscess‘. To the surprise my Professor I said the patient in fact has ‘ Constrictive Pericarditis‘ My Professor gave me a benefit of doubt and ordered fluoroscopy. Lo and behold I was proven right ,patient actually had the disease which I had suggested and patient was saved from a potentially dangerous needle aspiration of Liver. I was over the moon and my stock amongst my colleagues and senior!
Subscribe to read the full article: