Malpractice brings unbearable suffering<\/p>\n
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta<\/p>\n
Nurul Qomariyah never imagined she would be a widow by the time
\nshe was 26, left with a 2-year-old son and carrying an unborn
\nchild.<\/p>\n
\"But what hurt me most is how I lost my husband in such a
\ncareless way,\" said Nurul, a reporter for Internet news portal
\ndetik.com.<\/p>\n
It has been eight days since Nurul's late husband, freelance
\njournalist Eko Wariadi, died of malaria after being hospitalized
\nfor one week.<\/p>\n
But it was not until his last day in the hospital that doctors
\ndiagnosed the disease.<\/p>\n
\"At first he just had a light fever, so we took him to the
\nnearby Pondok Gede Haj Hospital (East Jakarta). The diagnosis was
\ntyphoid fever,\" Nurul said.<\/p>\n
Instead of improving, Eko's condition worsened, with the
\naddition of a cough, breathing problems and stomach pains.<\/p>\n
\"Doctors insisted that he was having an asthma attack even
\nthough I insisted that he didn't have asthma,\" Nurul said.<\/p>\n
On the fifth day, his breathing problems became worse and Eko
\nstarted to have convulsions, his lungs swelled up and he
\ngradually lost consciousness.<\/p>\n
But doctors still could not diagnose what was wrong with him.<\/p>\n
A team of doctors then came up with kidney failure, but since
\nthe hospital does not have a dialysis machine, Eko was
\ntransferred to the Cempaka Putih Islamic Hospital in Central
\nJakarta.<\/p>\n
\"A doctor there asked me whether my husband had been out of
\ntown recently. I said yes, he had been to Lampung and Lombok in
\nthe past one month,\" Nurul said.<\/p>\n
Lampung is a province where malaria is still endemic.<\/p>\n
\"Apparently the doctor at Cempaka Putih knew right away that
\nmy husband had malaria. Unfortunately, it was too late,\" she
\nsaid.<\/p>\n
Nurul said she was not accusing the doctors of malpractice.<\/p>\n
\"I just regret so much that doctors can be so careless. I
\nwonder, do doctors in this country tend to be that way? Because
\nI've heard about so many malpractice cases here,\" she said.<\/p>\n
And like other victims of malpractice, Nurul has opted not to
\ntake legal action.<\/p>\n
Numerous cases of malpractice came under the media spotlight
\nin 2002.<\/p>\n
One case occurred in Bengkulu, where a patient died on the
\nsurgery table at M. Yunus General Hospital after mistakenly being
\ngiven the deadly carbon dioxide instead of nitrous oxide.<\/p>\n
The case was brought to court but judges found the doctors
\ninnocent, saying they had only administered the gas that had been
\nprovided by the hospital.<\/p>\n
Many incidents occur during childbirth, such as two
\nmalpractice suits brought in Bekasi last year by women who had
\nundergone caesarean sections.<\/p>\n
The first case involved Lusi Ariani of Rawalumbu Bekasi, who
\nfound that she had a wound on her calf after her caesarean
\nsection. After repeatedly asking the doctor where the wound came
\nfrom, he admitted that she had been cut on the calf by a piece of
\nequipment during the surgery.<\/p>\n
The second case occurred at Mitra Keluarga Hospital and
\ninvolved a woman named Sutiyah. The surgeon cut her baby while
\nperforming a caesarean section.<\/p>\n
The father brought the case to the police and asked for
\ncompensation from the hospital.<\/p>\n
However, neither case seems to have gone anywhere in the
\ncourts.<\/p>\n
And in Musi Banyuasin, South Sumatra, a woman named Yusnita
\ndied after giving birth after the hospital mistakenly gave her an
\ninfusion of the wrong blood type.<\/p>\n
The mother lost a lot of blood while giving birth, so a doctor
\ntook a blood sample that he read as type A while it should have
\nbeen type O.<\/p>\n
Like many other victims of malpractice, Yusnita's family did
\nnot pursue the matter in the courts. It could be that they just
\nassumed the court's decision would favor the doctors.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/malpractice-brings-unbearable-suffering-1447893297",
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