Originally posted by ShutterBug:
[b]Doctor ticked the wrong box in report
Daughter completes hepatitis B immunisation
But shocked mum gets report later saying girl has the
virus
By Tan May Ping
June 21, 2007
WHEN Mrs Kelly Lim took her 10-year-old daughter to get the third
and final jab for a hepatitis B immunisation in January, she was
told they were a month early.
Kristal, with her mother (right), holding a copy of the
polyclinic's mistaken report on her daughter's condition. --
Picture: JONATHAN CHOO
So they returned as scheduled in February.
Then, three months later, MrsLim could not believe her eyes when
she read a report from the polyclinic.
It said her daughter is hepatitisB positive. And that she should
consult a doctor.
Mrs Lim was scared - and confused.
Didn't her girl just complete the three injections required for
hepatitisB vaccination?
Her mind was wracked with worry:
Could Kristal have been so 'suay' (unlucky) as to catch the disease
before her last jab? Did she not get enough immunity? Was she a
hepatitis B carrier? How bad was the situation?
Mrs Lim, 43, told The New Paper: 'The result said 'Anti-HBc IgM is
positive'. I knew something was wrong.
'Hep B is not something to be taken lightly. If she really was a
carrier, then we'd have to be very careful.'
The statement did mean that Kristal was a hepatitis B
carrier.
But Mrs Lim, an administrative assistant, could not get anyone to
clear her doubts.
Hepatitis B is a serious disease caused by a virus that attacks the
liver. The virus can cause lifelong infection, cirrhosis (or
scarring of the liver), liver cancer, liver failure and
death.
Kristal's immunisation and post-immunisation screening were done
between August last year and May this year at the Toa Payoh
Polyclinic, about a 15-minute walk from their flat.
When Mrs Lim called the polyclinic for an explanation on 30May -
the day she received the screening result - she was told to wait
for a reply.
A few days passed and nobody called her.
For those few nights, Mrs Lim lay in bed worrying about her
daughter.
Anxious for an answer, any answer, she called several hospitals to
ask what the result meant.
NO REPLY
But each time, she didn't get to speak to anyone and left voice
messages.
Desperate, she also called a private doctor she visited once, but
the nurse refused to put her through to the doctor as the screening
wasn't done at the clinic.
A week later, on 6 Jun, Mrs Lim returned to the polyclinic
again.
There, she showed the report to a nurse.
Looking at it, the nurse told her the tick means Kristal was a
carrier.
Mrs Lim could not believe it and pressed the nurse to check.
That was when the nurse found out that the doctor who had evaluated
the laboratory results had ticked the wrong box.
He should have ticked the box that read: 'You are immune to
HepatitisB. Immunisation is not needed.'
The nurse apologised for the mistake, but Mrs Lim was still
upset.
She had spent a week worrying about it. She was told that her
daughter was a disease carrier, and all the time, she was the one
who had to keep chasing the polyclinic for answers.
She said: 'This is totally unacceptable. Shouldn't the doctor have
been more careful?
'What if the screening had been for a more serious illness? Can you
imagine the stress it would cause the patient?'
The polyclinic comes under the National Healthcare Group
Polyclinics (NHGP), which has apologised for the mistake. (See
report, above right).
It has been a series of bad experiences for Mrs Lim.
And it started with how the appointment for the final jab was
scheduled earlier than it should have been. In practice, the third
injection should be administered six months from the first
injection. In this case, only five months had elapsed.
She said: 'I was not happy that they were slipshod in assigning a
date. What if the nurse had not spotted the mistake and the
injection was given earlier?'
The NHGP has clarified that if Kristal had been given the injection
a month earlier, it wouldn't have harmed her.
Mrs Lim added: 'I remember that day very clearly because it was
raining heavily and by the time we reached the polyclinic, we were
all drenched.'
She was so unhappy that day that she filled up a service quality
feedback form on the spot. But she was disappointed when nobody got
in touch with her about it.
'What is the point of a feedback form?' she asked.
Including an initial blood test, the appointment mix-up and the
trip to clarify the report, Mrs Lim had to go to the polyclinic
seven times in about 10 months.
'Most of the visits took more than an hour each time. It's such a
waste of my time and effort.
'I hope this doesn't happen to another person. After this
experience, I might just go to private doctors next time.'
[/b]
And I thought the free NHS public healthcare, which also happens
to be the fourth largest employer on the planet, in Britain was
bad... 