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Another baby dies from malnutrition in Makassar

An undernourished baby died on Monday at Labuang Baji Hospital, Makassar, adding to a list of deaths with similar circumstances in South Sulawesi, ironically known as one of the country's rice production centers

Andi Hajramurni (The Jakarta Post)
Makassar
Tue, December 2, 2008

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Another baby dies from malnutrition in Makassar

An undernourished baby died on Monday at Labuang Baji Hospital, Makassar, adding to a list of deaths with similar circumstances in South Sulawesi, ironically known as one of the country's rice production centers.

One-year-old Nurul Hidayat was admitted to hospital on Friday with a high fever, suffering diarrhea and vomiting.

"The doctor at the hospital told me my daughter was suffering from malnutrition because she only weighed 5.05 kilograms when she was admitted to hospital," Nurul's mother, Norma Daeng Nginga, said.

Nurul's 55-year-old mother said she had initially took Nurul to a community health center (Puskesmas) in Kassi, Manggala district.

"The diarrhea stopped, but not the fever. She was also coughing," Norma said.

Ten days later, Nurul's condition had worsened. Nurul continued to vomit and Norma decided to take her to hospital.

Norma said she could not have taken her sooner because her husband, Badding Daeng Ramma, did not have enough money to do so.

"He is just a scavenger and earns only around Rp 10,000 a day," Norma said.

The family found it difficult to cover the Rp 80,000 hospital fee which they were charged for failing to present an identity card (which states they are in low-income residents of Makassar and eligible to free health care).

The money was returned the following day, after Badding managed to show the required card.

However, another problem arose when they had to take Nurul's body home. They did not have money to pay the ambulance fee of Rp 200,000.

So, Norma took local public transportation, known as pete-pete, with Nurul's body under her arm -- pretending as though the baby was still alive. Otherwise the driver would have refused to take her, she said.

"I lied. I told the driver the baby was just sick. I kept talking to the body as if it was alive, while her aunt who accompanied me sang lullabies, pretending to send her to sleep," Norma said.

Separately, Labuang Baji Hospital deputy director Sri Fausyah said the medical service fee was charged only as a guarantee and would be returned to the family once required administrative documents were provided.

Sri also said malnutrition had not been the cause of Nurul's death.

"The medical record says she was admitted because of diarrhea, fever and vomiting, not because of malnutrition."

However, Nurul was undernourished and weighed less than the average of between seven and eight kilograms, Sri added.

"... she was indeed undernourished. That was why we gave her supplementary foods to help her recover quickly," Sri said.

Makassar Health Agency head Naisyah Tun Azikin said the decrease in Nurul's body weight was due to the diarrhea and fever she had suffered and not because of the malnutrition.

When Nurul was taken to a Puskesmas in August she had weighed 6.9 kilograms which was considered healthy, Naisyah said. She received supplementary foods, but they were not for malnutrition, Naisyah added.

South Sulawesi Health Agency has records of 10 infants dying from malnutrition between January and October this year and 94 other cases of acute malnutrition which were followed by clinical symptoms known as Marasmus kwashiorkor.

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