T

he Supreme Court (MA) has ordered privately run Pondok Indah Hospital (RSPI) to pay Rp 2 billion (US$202,000) in damages to Pitra Azmirla and Damitra Almira, whose mother, the late Sita Dewati Darmoko, was a victim of medical malpractice at the hospital.

The panel of judges, comprising Atja Sondjaja, Valerina Jl Kriekhoff and I Made Tara, found a team of doctors at the RSPI guilty of misdiagnosing Sita'€™s late-stage cancer, and ordered the hospital to pay the fine. The verdict was issued in February last year but was only uploaded on to the Supreme Court'€™s official website on Friday.

The Supreme Court had previously ordered RSPI to pay only Rp 200 million in damages in 2009, compensation, which the case review described as too low because of '€œerrors made due to lack of consideration [by the judges]'€.

Responding to the court'€™s decision, the Judicial Commission, which oversees the work of justices at the Supreme Court, said that '€œa case review is possible when judges make mistakes [in their rulings]'€.

'€œThose who feel that they have been wronged have the right to challenge court rulings through an extraordinary legal remedy and the law provides for this,'€ Judicial Commission spokesperson Asep Rahmat Fajar said on Friday.

The case began when Sita underwent ovarian tumor surgery in February 2005 at RSPI. It was later discovered that the tumor was in fact more malignant liver cancer.

A year after the surgery, Sita complained of a lump in her abdomen, after which she immediately underwent a computerized tomography (CT) scan which found stage four liver cancer. Sita died soon after.

Representing the family, Pitra and Damitra filed a lawsuit against RSPI with the South Jakarta District Court, which in August 2007 found against the hospital and ordered it to pay Rp 172.7 million for material losses and another Rp 20 billion for non-material losses.

'€œThe deceased had to undergo a long and tiring process of medical treatment, and the falsely diagnosed Pathology Anatomy [PA] caused her further suffering,'€ Pitra and Damitra stated in their lawsuit.

The Jakarta High Court upheld this ruling in November 2008, but acquitted one of the doctors, I Made Nazar, in the case.

RSPI filed an appeal to the Supreme Court, which in 2009 cleared all of the doctors responsible for the surgery of liability, and instead ordered RSPI to pay Rp 200 million.

This ruling prompted Pitra and Damitra to file a case review to the Supreme Court in May 2011.

Responding to the ruling, RSPI spokesperson Karina Wijaya said that '€œthe management of the RSPI Group will honor and comply with the court'€™s ruling. We have also established a good relationship with the family of the [late] patient'€, she told The Jakarta Post.

The victory of Pitra and Damitra against RSPI has added to the list of malpractice suits won by patients or their families. In November 2007, the Supreme Court ordered Puri Cinere Hospital to pay Rp 520 million to Shanti Marina, whose voice was badly affected after a tonsillectomy in 2003.

In 2009, the South Jakarta District Court ruled in favor of Sisi Chalik in a malpractice case against the Budi Jaya Mother and Child Hospital, and ordered the hospital to pay Rp 792 million.

Sisi suffered a lengthy illness after surgery on a uterine tumor at the hospital in May 2000 that resulted in her having to defecate through her stomach.