A hospital in Indonesia refused to hand over the body of a six-month-old boy, who died Tuesday, to the family.
But then selected a bunch of bikers to take matters into their own hands.
the Boy’s uncle is running for daily motorcycle taxi in Padang, and when he and his colleagues heard that the hospital refused to let the family bury the boy Alif, because my hospital bill had not been paid, they decided to do something.
“We swung into action, when we found out, the family could not get their child, so they could bury him, because they could not pay the 25 million rupiah (approximately 12.000, ed.), they owed for the treatment of the boy,” said one of the cabbies to the BBC.
Wardiansyah, as he states, calling it a ‘humanitarian mission’ and tells that the M Djamil hospital staff despite attempts could not stop the many attendees.
Therefore, you managed also to leave the hospital with the dead baby.
the Episode is far from alone in Indonesia, where hospitals and clinics, according to the BBC often take Perabet newborn babies ‘hostage’ until the bills are paid.
A health system is otherwise just been rolled out under president Joko Widodo, but it has been hit by problems with financing, and many poor families have not got themselves registered. Nor does the six-month-old boy’s family.
His mother, Dewi Surya, says according to the BBC, that the family was in the process of registering, when the son was sick. But, they did it not in time. He died Tuesday at a operating.
Since the family, who are muslims, have fought to get him extradited, since it is muslim practice to bury the deceased as soon as possible.
“Poor Alif lay in the morgue for too long. The drivers were angry, so they brought him by force,” says Dewi Surya.
At the hospital management is not impressed with the method, but apologize none the less for the inconvenience, the family has been through.
“the Hospital was not aware of the family situation, when they wrote a complaint,” says director Yusirwan Yusuf.
He calls the matter a ‘misunderstanding’, adding that the family’s bill is now paid by the hospital’s board of directors. He says, however, a criticism of the drivers:
“We have a standard operating procedure, and it was not complied with. It is outrageous. What if the corpse was contaminated with the disease? Who would be responsible?”
Ago, a spokesman for the taxi drivers apologized for the incident and promised to help re-establish the hospital’s good name.
