Malpractice cases go to trial
Malpractice cases go to trial
Leony Aurora, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
A bereaved husband has filed a malpractice suit against Cipto
Mangunkusumo General Hospital (RSCM) and Pelni Hospital in
Jakarta and PMI Hospital in Bogor, West Java, for negligence that
resulted in the death of his wife Adya Vitry Harsisusanti two
years ago.
The man, Indra Yacub, said on Thursday at the Central Jakarta
District Court his wife died at RSCM after a doctor inserted a
central venous pressure (CVP) needle into a vein in her neck. The
CVP was needed to administer an anesthetic for an operation the
next day.
"The doctor was not an anesthesiologist, just a general
practitioner who was studying to be one," he lamented.
The other two hospitals treated his wife and had her undergo
many tests and procedures without diagnosing her illness, said
Yacub. The 39-year-old man demanded that the three state
hospitals publish an apology in the media and pay material
damages of Rp 47,324,000 (US$5,502) and nonmaterial damages of Rp
3 billion.
The court adjourned the trial for next week as the defendants
were not present.
The lawsuit is one of several malpractice cases surfacing in
the last few months, including that of Irwanto, a researcher at
Atmajaya University in Jakarta, who became paralyzed from the
waist down after receiving an enoxaparin sodium injection for a
supposed cardiac problem.
Doctors in Singapore found out later on there was nothing
wrong with his heart.
The police in Cirebon, West Java, are now hearing a lawsuit
lodged by the family of a tumor patient who died following
surgery after receiving a blood transfusion of type A blood,
while her blood type was actually O.
Cirebon Police detectives chief Taufik Ansori said that there
were strong indications of negligence that could be prosecuted
under the criminal code.
Taufik Basari, Yacub's lawyer from the Jakarta Legal Aid
Institute, said that his suit was based on Chapter 1365 of the
civil code, which obliges those violating a law and
disadvantaging others to pay damages.
"The law here could mean the Health Law, the Consumer
Protection Law or the law on medical ethics," said Basari.
Although people could sue for malpractice, it is difficult to
proceed as there are no specific regulations regarding it.
Currently a bill on medical practice stands to be deliberated
by the House of Representatives in the next session from April to
July. It mentions specifically that people can sue doctors and
hospitals if they feel disadvantaged by their services.
"However, it doesn't stipulate any standards on medical
services to specify required tests or actions for specific
diseases, and that's what we need," said Basari.
Marius Widjajarta of the Indonesian Health Consumer
Empowerment Foundation said such standards should be stipulated
in a government regulation under the Health Law.
"There should have been 29 regulations drafted for the Health
Law, and so far we have only four," he told The Jakarta Post.
Marius further said that such standards would also protect
doctors facing suits, because it would be easier to prove that
they had done all that was necessary.