My wife just got out of hospital after giving birth through cesarean section on Nov. 10. We had a very bad experience.

My wife's operation was planned for Nov. 10, at RSB Permata Sarana Husada in Pamulang, at 8 p.m., but it was then delayed until about 9 p.m. Shortly after the operation started, there was a black out. According to the required SOP (Standard of Operation), the generator set should immediately turn on and provide enough electricity for the operating room.

But the generator never turned on until the time we had to go home (Nov. 13). It could be said then that there was a violation over hospital's SOP if a surgery or other high-risk actions were to be done.

Instead of turning to a proper alternative such as buying or borrowing a generator set - since there were some shops selling mini generators - some employees of the hospital tried to repair the generator and kept my bleeding wife waiting.

I myself then tried to persuade the hospital's officials that the generator set was already broken and it was better to move my wife to the nearest hospital. But they kept trying to repair it until many people living or working around the hospital gathered wondering what was going on.

After about 14 minutes in waiting, the obstetrician finally came out telling me that they would take my wife to another hospital. We thanked God that my wife and child survived.

But strangely, after the morning's terrible case, the hospital management kept doing other cesarean sections in the evening without supporting electrical generator set. Doesn't that suggest that patient safety comes second to money? Why did the management of the hospital insist on doing the sections there?

Because they wanted to avoid paying for an operating room to rent and to buy medicine, as the operation would be conducted at another hospital?

The unprofessional treatment of the hospital did not stop there. One or two hours after our arrival back at the hospital, after being "entrusted" to the other hospital and feeling terribly exhausted both physically and mentally, the hospital's finance section directly asked me to pay 30 percent of the total cost.

When we paid the rest, there was no detailed explanation of the very expensive cost we had to pay.

When I tried to confirm the detail, the hospital's staff could not explain anything satisfyingly. The other terrible thing was how they treated my baby's navel: When my wife and I saw it when he was about to be bathed, it was rotting and we feared that there was an infection, so different from our other two children who were also born through cesarean section.

I am still wondering whether or not the management of the hospital is concerned with safe practices and SOP. Do they only care about the amount of money, even though they have to threaten the lives of their own patients? If this practice still exists, I am very worried that patients who are less fortunate because of being tricked by a hospital will suffer more and more.

Hopefully, the local health agency or the Health Ministry will carefully study such cases and enact strict sanctions to both hospital(s) and doctors. Besides, as the consumers, we should be critical in choosing health services and we must try to no longer be fooled by the bad practices such as through carefully observing the supporting facilities provided by a hospital.

Khairil Azhar
South Tangerang, Banten

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