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Pregnant women report clinic to police over expired drugs
While feeling nausea and vomiting are considered normal during pregnancy, what was experienced by two women in Penjaringan, North Jakarta, was different
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span>While feeling nausea and vomiting are considered normal during pregnancy, what was experienced by two women in Penjaringan, North Jakarta, was different.
Their sickness was allegedly caused by expired medicine they received from a local community health center (puskesmas) and consumed.
The case first came to light when 21-year-old Novi Sri Wahyuni and her husband, through her lawyer Pius Situmorang, filed a report to Penjaringan Police. The accused the Puskesmas Kamal Muara of violating consumer protection laws.
Their complaint dates back to Aug. 13 when Novi was given a few kinds of medicine and vitamin B6 pills after a pregnancy health checkup at the Puskesmas Kamal Muara.
Pius, based on his client’s accounts, said after taking the drugs twice, Novi began to feel headache, stomachache and nausea and was vomiting more severely than she usually did during the pregnancy.
When she checked the packaging of the medicines she had consumed, she realized that the vitamins had expired. “Novi had returned to the puskesmas, saying that she felt aches all over her body. The puskesmas officer then admitted that they had given her expired drugs,” Pius said on Aug. 16, kompas.com reports.
Besides Novi, there is another pregnant woman, also from Kamal Muara subdistrict in Penjaringan, Winda Dwi Lestari, 26, who had the same experience. Her husband, Hendi Wijaya, said that Winda received and consumed the same vitamin B6 pills.
“My wife has experienced similar symptoms. I thought it was normal, but then I read the news [about Novi] and I realized that the vitamin pills my wife had been taking were also expired,” Hendi said on Wednesday. She received the drugs on July 29 and had taken at least 15 pills since.
North Jakarta Police chief Sr. Comr. Budhi Herdi Susianto said the police had questioned a pharmacist identified as HAR, the head of Puskesmas Penjaringan, Agus Arianto Haryoso, and the head of Puskesmas Kamal Muara, Lisbet Marpaung.
Based on the police’s preliminary investigation, Budhi added, they claimed the incident occurred out of negligence. “But we will keep on searching for the truth, whether it was genuinely an accident or intentional,” Budhi said.
“If it was intentional, we should also find out whether there was anyone who instructed or persuaded [the pharmacist],” he added.
Budhi called on other pregnant women who shared similar experiences as Novi and Wulan to report them to the police. “This is about women who are carrying babies within them. There are two souls in one body,” Budhi added.
Novi allegedly had taken at least 38 pills from three strips in the past one month. The puskesmas reportedly had attempted to compensate for their mistake by taking Novi to Bun Hospital in Kosambi, Tangerang, and getting supplements to strengthen Novi’s pregnancy. However, Novi claimed that the puskesmas’ officers had kept the drugs from her.
Puskesmas Penjaringan head Agus, meanwhile, refuted Novi’s claim and said that they simply forgot to give them to her. “The situation was very emotional, [Novi and her husband] went home abruptly and we forgot to give it to her,” Agus said as quoted by kompas.com on Tuesday.
In response to the incident, Jakarta Health Agency head Widyastuti said through a release that she had instructed her staff to investigate and conduct an examination of the aforementioned puskesmas. While the investigation is taking place, the pharmacist has been suspended from the job. “We apologize for the inconvenience experienced by Mrs. N and her family in the health services provided by Puskesmas Kamal Muara on Aug. 13,” she said.
The head of the Jakarta chapter of the Indonesia Pharmacists Association’s pharmacist education development division, Sutriyo, said there was only a slight possibility that vitamin B6 or pyridoxine to become tainted within a few months after their expiration dates, hence they would still be safe to consume.
