Woman sues doctors for leaving bullet in her body

JAKARTA (JP): A woman filed a Rp 2.4 billion (US$320,000) lawsuit against three doctors over a bullet that was not removed from her right hip during an operation last July.

The lawsuit was filed at the Tangerang District Court on Wednesday against the doctors, who practice at Honoris Hospital in Tangerang.

The woman, identified as Indri Sulistyowati, 23, said she filed the lawsuit because the doctors, particularly surgeon Yongki B. Kurniawan, consciously decided to sew up the wound without first removing the bullet.

"The surgeon instead cut open my stomach and sewed it up, for unclear reasons," the 23-year-old Indri told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday.

"I ended up having the bullet removed at Pertamina Hospital in South Jakarta in August 1999, nearly a month after the incident. I had to suffer in a wheelchair for some six months. A number of doctors told me that I would be paralyzed for life.

"Then I forced myself to walk, with physiotherapy, acupuncture and all sorts of Chinese medicine. I still suffer excruciating pain in my right leg when I walk long distances."

She identified the doctors as Yongki, the surgeon who operated on her; Hartono Prabowo, the neurologist who told her leaving the bullet in her hip would "not have any effect on her body, and that the bullet would not move"; and Honoris Hospital director Purnomo Sidi.

Indri, a Tangerang resident, said a Colt .38 belonging to her former fiance, who is a Tangerang Police officer, accidentally went off on July 25 last year, and the bullet pierced her right hip and lodged there, damaging her "motor nerves".

Her former fiance, identified only as First. Lt. R, rushed her to Honoris Hospital, located five minutes away from his residence, and signed the operation consent form, identifying himself as the victim's husband.

"He was in a real state of panic and wanted me to have the operation. I was in a state of hysteria because my right leg was so painful. Suddenly, the medical staffers wheeled me into the operating room," she said.

Here, Indri said she heard the anesthesiologist, identified as Anton Juwono, ask a nurse why Indri was in the operating room when a supply of her blood type had not arrived.

"The nurse said it was because the operating surgeon, Yongki, had ordered it. I heard Anton telling Yongki that if anything went wrong, he would not be held responsible," Indri said.

"I was immediately anesthetized. The operation took five hours. Once I regained consciousness, I asked if the bullet had been removed ... and my doctors told me that it would have caused damage to the tissue and that the wound had to be sewed up."

Separately, Yongki said that as a surgeon, his first priority was to save the patient's life.

"Ask any doctor why the stomach had to be cut open in this case ... and not the back. The bullet lodged somewhere in her back. We didn't know where. Had I cut open her back and tried to play around to dislodge the bullet, it could have caused a lot of bleeding in her abdomen," Yongki told the Post separately.

"That would have caused her death. That would be malpractice," he said.

He added that not all bullets must be removed, particularly in life-threatening situations.

"If a bullet can do absolutely no harm to a patient, and instead do harm if it is dislodged, it is best to let it be.

"In any case, one or two days after the operation I offered to remove the bullet in another operation. She refused." (ylt)