Materia Medica Malaysiana

Cop laments treatment at govt hospitals

Kuala Lumpur: Corporal Zahari Husin’s left thigh was swollen and infected, the pain was almost unbearable and he could hardly walk.

But the Kuala Lumpur Hospital (HKL) and the Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia Hospital (HUKM) refused to get him admitted, the 45-year-old policeman said Wednesday.

Zahari claimed that a medical officer at HUKM even went to the extent of telling him to wait for the swelling to turn blue before he could be admitted. “I was only given outpatient treatment. I requested to be admitted because my thigh was very painful and I could not walk ... but my request was turned down,” he said at the private Sentosa Hospital, here.

An x-ray taken at the Sentosa Hospital showed two two-cm shrapnel of a booby trap embedded in Zahari’s thigh. He had stepped on the explosive device in 1979 when serving with the Police Field Force in an operation against communist terrorists along the Malaysia-Thailand. He underwent surgery then at the Alor Star Hospital.

The scar had now become swollen and infected. Zahari, who is now a detective at the Dang Wangi district police headquarters, said he was disappointed with what he claimed was the unprofessionalism of staff at the two government hospitals who had failed to take care of a patient in severe pain.

He was only given an injection and pain killers at both the hospitals, he said, claiming that he had waited from 2pm to 10pm to be admitted to HUKM. Zahari said that at the Sentosa Hospital he was told that surgery to remove the shrapnel would put him at risk of paralysis.

He said he had paid RM2,000 to the Sentosa Hospital and owed RM2,000 more, adding that he was forced to seek private medical treatment though it was beyond his means because he wanted to save his leg.

“I had to pay up first before claiming from my health insurance,” he said, but added that money was not the point but the indifferent attitude of the government medical staff entrusted with the responsibility to administer treatment to patients professionally. - Bernama