Mother in desperate need of money to cure son

JAKARTA (JP): Central Jakarta Police detectives picked up a woman following a report from a local security officer who said she was wandering the street and appeared to be in great anguish.

Second Lt. Siswanto said the police picked up the woman on Jl. Raden Saleh after receiving the report from Junaidi, a private security guard at an insurance firm. At the time she was detained, the woman was with her 3-year-old baby son.

At the Central Jakarta Police station, the woman identified herself as Rokiyah and her son as Dirham Aris, whose right eye was swollen and covered with a bandage, Siswanto said.

She told officers she and her husband Mudali had taken their son to the eye clinic at nearby Cipto Mangunkusumo General Hospital.

Rokiyah said she had tried several traditional treatments but was unable to cure her son.

"We also went to a local health center but they refused to treat him, telling us to go to a hospital instead," she told the police.

She said she took Dirham to several hospitals but doctors refused to see the boy because she could not afford to pay for the treatment. The doctors advised her to take her son to Cipto Mangunkusumo hospital.

The doctor at Cipto briefly looked at Dirham and simply covered his eye with a bandage.

After leaving the examination room, Rokiyah became frantic because her husband was no longer in the waiting room, Siswanto said, adding that the woman then left the hospital to look for Mudali.

According to Junaidi, he spotted Rokiyah wandering around on Jl. Raden Saleh, repeating over and over "My son is cured, my son is cured".

"She did not answer my questions," Junaidi said.

The security officer said he took pity on Rokiyah and gave her money so she could return home. "But she tore up the money I gave her."

The woman and her boy were later brought to their home in Kadu Mangu, Sentul, Bogor. It's still unclear whether she finally met her husband. (06)