Hot on the heels of the SARS fracas and the SAF tragedies, we
are reminded of yet another mishap. this time by our highly suspect
hospitals. On June 2001, tank driver Corporal Chua Ya Ta sought
medical treatment from his camp MO. He complained that his leg was
hurting and was thus referred to NUH (ok this time round, SAF
actually did the right thing : so they're cool). At NUH he was
treated and sent home, but 3 hours later, he went back complaining
of pain and was admitted. 2 doctors accused him of "malingering"
(ang moh for keng). Even when he fainted in the shower, had blood
in his stool and his fingers, toes and face were turning blue,
doctors described Corporal Chua as in stable condition and not in
"clinical danger".
Two days later, Corporal Chua died of an acute bacterial
infection.
What the hell are our doctors doing? Not in clinical danger? You
have to be kidding... Do we need some kinda list to show what
constitutes in clinical danger? Is NUH staffed with incompetents?
Please lah, even I can tell you, you can't fake blue toes and
bloody stools. Why didn't the NUH doctors treat Corporal Chua's
case seriously? Wake up! Do they still remember something called
the Hippocratic Oath? Let me quote,
"I will apply, for the benefit of the sick, all measures which are
required, avoiding those twin traps of over-treatment and
therapeutic nihilism."
"I will remember that I remain a member of society, with special
obligations to all my fellow human beings, those sound of mind and
body as well as the infirm."
And most importantly, "Above all, I must not play at God."
ALL the measures required to treat a sick person. Were all measures
that were required taken? Hell no! After all, they had already
labeled him a malingerer. He was a chao keng, just trying to siam
(evade) training. But we have to ask, are the doctors in the
position to make that call?? Doctors took the Hippocratic Oath,
which basically spells out a doctor's duties to his fellow people.
NOWHERE in the Oath does it mention anything about making moral
judgments of patients or whether they are kenging or not. It simply
wasn't their call to make. It was not their place to judge. They
had no right to discriminate.
Even the camp MO, who had the proper authority to ascertain whether
Corporal Chua was a malingerer, rightly advised him to go to NUH to
seek treatment. The camp MO didn't feel that Corporal Chua was
kenging, so why did the NUH doctors feel otherwise? By profiling
NSF Corporal Chua as a malingerer, simply because they were both
too incompetent to properly diagnose the problem and too fricking
bo chap to care, these doctors are guilty of violating the
Hippocratic Oath, guilty of professional negligence and guilty of
discrimination.
Probably fed up with all the bullshit, the family of Corporal Chua
is filing a suit against 6 doctors and NUH for their negligence in
treating their elder son. I for one hope that proper Judgment is
done this time.
Go get em.
See Guai Lan
www.thevoiddeck.org