Patient Experience
When my father was admitted, things felt chaotic. Dr. Kalkekar was the one who actually stopped, looked us in the eye, and explained what was happening in plain language. He didn't just talk to the patient; he talked to us, the scared family in the hallway. That meant more than he probably knows. The hospital is huge and can feel impersonal, but he wasn't.
My 8-year-old had a high fever that wouldn't break, and I was terrified. We saw Dr. Kalkekar at Apollo. He was so calm with my son, asking him about school and cartoons before even touching him. He explained everything to me, step-by-step, what the tests were for and what we were looking at. He called the next day himself to check in. It wasn't just medicine; it felt like someone actually cared about my scared kid.
Had a weird stomach thing for weeks. Saw Dr. Kalkekar. He listened, didn't rush me, figured it out. Got the right meds. Feeling better now. Simple as that.
I went in for what I thought was just bad heartburn. Dr. Kalkekar, though, he heard something in how I described it that worried him. He asked a few more questions I hadn't even thought were related—about my energy, my arm. Long story short, he insisted on a few extra tests right then. It turned out to be a minor heart issue, not my stomach at all. Sitting in that waiting room for the ECG, I was annoyed at the extra time. Now, looking back, I realize he was just thorough in a way that might have saved me a bigger problem down the line. He saw the story I wasn't telling.