Hi upandaway, I was busy from a couple of days.. Didnt check ur replies.. You might be meeting me. When Doctor called me to inform that someone from UK is interested to talk to me, I figured it might be you.
The only minor inconvenience I have is with the post-op consultations. The hospital is very big, with many buildings and there are lot of patients so where ever I go there is a big crowd. There is a waiting involved every where. Every consultation takes almost 2.5 hrs, where most of the time is consumed for x-rays. This is not even an issue for many, but I hate hundreds of people staring at my legs, and I hate waiting before the X-Ray room, as I feel like a disabled, helpless patient when I sit in that hospital wheel chair for that long. 
I informed you before hand how the hospital would be wrt the people. India has 3 times the population of that in US, within one third of its area. So there would be lot of people around, and Delhi is national capital, so very crowded. Also, due to your skin color you will get a lot of stares. Delhi people are shameless at that.
Sir Gangaram hospital is the largest hospital in Delhi catering to both rich and poor. What you saw yesterday was the old building which was built in 1954. It is undergoing some renovation. Old building is used for doctor consultations only. And that is where most people come to, and that is where you went to I suppose. It is not modern and I am sure you did not like it. There is a new building behind this where most of the modern equipment is. That is where the surgery will take place, and that is where you stay post-surgery. They do maintain standards and hospital is clean enough. It is built recently and is modern enough. Many rich politicians and rich people have surgeries here, as the hospital has modern equipment and the doctors are skilled enough. But if you are going to compare it with the hospitals in US/UK, it will be a no match for obvious reasons (The same rich people go to US/UK for complex surgeries..
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This hospital gets government funding as it was service oriented, so they do surgeries to some poor trauma patients every year free of cost, or for some nominal price depending on their financial capability. I am sure they will re-use the TSF rings for such patients for deformity correction. After the consolidation, you are not obliged to take off rings here, irrespective of what D. Dhawan wants. You can do it anywhere, and any doctor will do it easily. Dr Dhawan might "like" it if you returned the frames, so he can use it for other poor patients, but he has no right what so ever to insist you to return them.
Also 2 days back I went to hospital for changing my Struts on the frames. They brought there a big TSF Kit, which has a lot of screws, Struts, Rings etc., all new in TSF branded boxes. Doctor does say they get it directly from the manufacturer, and I dont think the rings I saw in the kit are old, or re-used. After wearing the TSF for 3 months, I know that even if frames are used for 10days, they will wear out. It is made of aluminium with black paint on it. Same as a black IPhone which looses its paint around its edges after a few days of use, TSF frames lose a lot of paint after using for a few days. Also there will be lot of nicks on the edges. So, it is easy to distinguish a re-used TSF frame. But I think it is not that easy to recognize a re-used classic ilizarov frame, as there is no paint on it, and everything is aluminium (or what ever that metal is).
I am not trying to convince you to do surgery here with Dr.Dhawan, in fact he sent few of his prospective LL patients like you to talk to me before too (or just to look at my TSF frames, and generally I am happy to talk to new people, so I let them visit me), and I always manage to scare them off if I think they do not understand the depth of their decision, and just want to be tall. I sent a few of them for further consultation with Dr.Talwar too. I believe people should have a complete understanding of what they are getting into before having this surgery. If you are basing your decision on the infrastructure available, before taking a decision, just have a look at the new building too. And being a foreigner, you will not be sharing room with anyone, you will get a separate room after surgery. There are many options for room facilities you can choose from. Even if you decide to go with Dr. Talwar, you will face similar issues. But, may be his hospital might have more corporate look (Not sure, never visited his hospital) as it is completely private and profit oriented. I did not prefer Dr. Talwar as he prefers Monorails, does not fix fibula, and the surgery is actually done by other doctors, he just supervises them (I got this last part from someone from Dr dhawan's team, so I might be wrong too). I did not like that idea.
Also, you can just have surgery with Illizarov/Hexapod frames as Kilo suggested if you dont want to spend more on TSF frames. That will reduce a lot of cost. Dr. Dhawan has started trusting TSF more than classic frames due to their good performance, and comfort. But, he do offer classic ilizarov if insisted. Like many indians, even he might have assumed you are the richest person around (It is a kind of racism though not explicit), so suggested the best option he offers. Most of the surgery cost in my case, (Almost 5 Lakhs) is for the TSF frames itself. So, opting for Hexapod will reduce the cost.
Irrespective of the doctor you go to, or the hospital you have surgery in, all my comments are generic, and apply to pan-india or at least for delhi.
Where ever you go in India, you will face people who look to make some money out of a foreigner. Their salaries are not so high, but cost of living is very high in metro cities like delhi. So, they tend to approach rich people for tips for services they provide. And in their narrow, limited view, a foreigner is like the richest person they ever saw in their life. But, generally, they are not very greedy and it might be a dollar or two more than they charge an Indian (2 Dollars is 120 Rupees which is a considerable amount for them). And considering all that, you should be able to negotiate to save few bucks. In a way you should be street smart to deal with people here. The silver lining out of this is, in India, you can get anything if you are willing to spend money. You can have maid cooking food for you, cleaning, washing and all help.. under $60. You can find a hair stylist(or rather I should call him a barber) who comes to your house and does a hair cut under $5 and so on. Finding english speaking maid/barber is a bit difficult though..
You should be ready to deal with all these issues and people, if you decide to do surgery in India, or look else where.
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Topic: Phoenix.. Rising !! External Tibias with TSF Frames @ Dr. Dhawan, New Delhi (Read 43932 times)