Rights and wrongs
You've got to have a measure of sympathy for Indra Safri Yakub.
Indra's wife died at Cipto Mangunkusumo General Hospital (RSCM) after a doctor inserted a central venous pressure (CVP) needle into a vein in her neck, which was necessary to administer an anesthetic for an operation the following day. The doctor, however, was not an anesthesiologist. This is but one of
a litany of complaints lodged against eleven doctors on the grounds of malpractice. The suit was thrown out because it was supposedly "premature", and furthermore, he was suing the wrong people. It should have been the Board of Governors rather than the doctors. And he has to pay legal costs.
There is no specific legal process governing malpractice suits. The Medical Law was enacted on Sept.7th without a key article on medical malpractice that was included in the draft bill. Instead, the law defines "malpractice" as a case in which an individual commits fraud by posing as a doctor, nurse, health worker or other medical professional.
You've also got to feel sympathy for Anna Kusmanto. Her lawyer said that "
Anna had to undergo caesarian surgery on July 9th to deliver her first son. During the surgery, the doctors allegedly broke the baby's right thigh and burned Anna's left leg with a medical substance or instrument." Medistra promised to provide follow up medical treatment, but haven't yet, three months later.
Anna may be luckier than Indra; she's using criminal law in her suit ~ they failed to provide assistance after an accident.
Back in Blighty, the full panoply of regulations issued by the government and
Quangos (
Quasi-autonomous Non-
government
Organisations, NGOs,
CABs (
Citizens'
Advice
Bureaux ),
Law Centres, Community Advice Centres, interest groups, neighbours and, if they're lucky, journalists would secure Indra and Anna some recompense.
Some say that Britain is becoming a 'nanny state'; well, if they mean that there would be a reversion to the Welfare State, with free milk, malt and orange juice for kids, free, or heavily subsidised, education for all, I'm all for it. Rationing meant a sensible diet and all vehicles and TVs only came in two colours and that's what made me the man I am today. Kids don't know how lucky they are; aye, when I were a lad I used do a fifty mile newspaper round up
Shooter's Hill, go for a two hour swim at
the local lido, do 50
Bob-a-Jobs and all before I woke up.
Today, October 1st, the final part of the UK's
Disability Discrimination Act comes into force. This virtually guarantees access to public buildings. What worries me, though, is the risk I could be taking in putting this online. At least I don't have to adopt
Diamond Geezer's approach in order to let you read this. Apparently, webmasters are liable if you wrick your neck or suffer finger fatigue syndrome whilst surfing the net.
But I'm here, so if you suffer a temporary cranial lesion through reading my pages and you're British, come and get me.
If you're Indonesian, send me a big fat brown envelope and I'll hire a lawyer to represent you. That seems to be the protocol here, although there's no mention of it in the
International Audit Protocol governing Health and Safety. I didn't find it in the
Under 5's Guide to Jakarta either.
Any changes in the law here will be very welcome. If retro-active, Indra and Anna may yet be treated well and the rest of us better.
It's too late for Namsong Sirilak and Saelow Prasert though. They were
executed by firing squad early this morning in Medan. The Thais, alleged drug smugglers, were denied translators at their trial.
Mega's parting shot?
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