Ilustrasi bayi baru lahir/foto: Omar Lopez/Unsplash
In Malaysia, a heartbreaking story unfolded when a couple had to face the bitter reality after their long-awaited baby died just minutes after being born. The baby boy had to be kept in a freezer for two weeks, because his parents could not afford the private hospital fees.
Quoted by brilio.net from mStar on Friday (13/12), the baby died 30 minutes after birth in a very concerning condition, only having one eye and no nose and fecal duct. Wan Cai, founder of the Special Police Mobile Unit of the Hearse Van (UKVJ), expressed how sad it was to see the body of this innocent baby having to be frozen.
"Imagine, a baby who died on November 24, 2024, was swaddled for two weeks and put in a refrigerator. All this happened because the father could not afford the cost of giving birth at the hospital," he said.
The process of handling the baby's body was also not easy. They had to use hot water to soften the body and joints of the body before burial. In addition, the mother was not allowed to leave the hospital ward until her bill was paid off, which amounted to around 3.6 thousand ringgit (around Rp12.9 million).
Wan Cai added that the baby's mother was a guarantee for the hospital to hand over the baby's body for burial. The burial process was eventually funded by public donations, showing concern for this tragic case.
On the other hand, in Jakarta, Cempaka Putih Islamic Hospital is also in the spotlight because of the alleged swapped babies. A married couple, Feni Selvianti and Muhammad Rauf, experienced an equally sad incident when they went to the hospital to give birth.
After the caesarean section, they were told that their baby had died, but when they opened the grave, they found that the body was not their child. These cases show how important it is to pay attention and care to health issues and hospital costs, and the need for transparency in health services. Let us hope that similar incidents will not happen again in the future.
(brl/red)
