Mardah, 45, a housewife from Tanjung Karang, Ampenan, Mataram, brought her son, Ahmad Al Farizi, 11, who was born with hydrocephalus, to complain at the West Nusa Tenggara (NTB) Ombudsman'€™s office in Mataram, NTB, on Wednesday, after being abandoned by a hospital.

Accompanied by officials from the Child Protection Foundation (LPA) Mataram, Mardah and her son complained about the way doctors in the NTB Hospital treated patients, in particular those from poor families.

'€œMy son was suffering from a high fever. I brought him to the NTB Hospital, on Monday, but he was just put in a patient ward. He was not given any medicines until this morning,'€ said Mardah.

'€œDoctors told me '€˜do not ever expect'€™ that my son could get well. And do not ever hope that my child would find his head becoming smaller so that he could go to school,'€ she said, adding that the doctors even told her to take her son back home.

Mardah said Farizi, her fourth child from her marriage with Suhaili, 50, had suffered from hydrocephalus since he was three months old. While his body was very thin, Farizi'€™s head had continued to grow bigger.

'€œMy husband is only a paid farmer and sometimes he is paid to find grass for feeding cattle. We cannot afford to pay for medication for Farizi,'€ said Mardah.

LPA Mataram chairwoman, Sri Mawarni, said discriminative treatment by the NTB Hospital against the poor patient with hydrocephalus had violated the rights of children and was a violation against humanity.

'€œNTB Hospital has treated patient Farizi in line with procedure,'€ NTB Hospital deputy director Lalu Ahmadi told journalists after a meeting with the Ombudsman. (ebf)

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