Absence of expert witnesses in medical cases: Lawyer

Dewi Santoso, Jakarta

In the absence of expert witnesses, the disciplinary council to be set up to handle cases of misconduct in the practice of medicine will never provide justice to victims, a lawyer says.

Gunawan Tjahjadi, one of three lawyers representing alleged malpractice victim Irwanto, said on Saturday the major obstacle standing between malpractice victims and justice was the difficulties in finding expert witnesses, usually doctors, who were willing to testify in court.

"No doctors are willing to testify against their peers as they feel the need to protect their own profession," said Gunawan.

His client, Irwanto, voiced the same opinion, saying he had been trying to find an expert witness to testify in his case but to no avail.

The two were commenting on an agreement between the House of Representatives and the government on the establishment of a disciplinary council that will handle cases of medical malpractice. Both the lawmakers and government officials are currently deliberating the medical practice bill.

Gunawan said a case was categorized as malpractice when a doctor performed unnecessary medical practices which violated medical standard procedures.

Irwanto, who is a lecturer at Atma Jaya University, was left paralyzed chest down after a doctor allegedly misdiagnosed his chest pain as a cardiac problem and prescribed a heart medicine, which resulted in a ruptured vein.

His case is currently being heard by the district court.

Irwanto described how difficult it was to find a cardiologist who was willing to testify in court.

"I work in an institution that owns a hospital with a huge number of doctors. Yet, I cannot find one cardiologist who is willing to testify. The answer is always the same: They say they're not competent and therefore cannot testify," said Irwanto.

Gunawan said the absence of expert witnesses was denying malpractice victims justice.

"I've handled a case in which a man was left with a surgical drill inside him and he didn't even know until an X-ray found the tool inside his body. We lost the case in both the district and high courts because the judges said the surgeon had followed all the procedures and we couldn't find expert witnesses to determine whether these procedures were correct," he told The Jakarta Post.

The lack of a strong legal system poses another hurdle for malpractice victims, Gunawan said.

"What makes it worse, is that people do not have access to clear explanations on what the standard medical procedures are," said Gunawan.

In Singapore, he said, the legal system enables malpractice victims to win their cases, as happened in the 1990s when a woman sued her physician for administering an unnecessary injection.

A public interest lawyer from the Indonesian Consumers Foundation, Sudaryatmo, agreed with Gunawan, saying the legal system here needed improvement, otherwise cases of medical malpractice would continue to take place.