Daily Lessson from Life 22 October 2008

"Woman rejected by 8 hospitals

Woman in Japan suffering a brain haemorrhage while about to give birth died after being turned away by eight hospitals. -Wed, Oct 22, 2008 Reuters

TOKYO - A WOMAN in Japan suffering a brain haemorrhage while about to give birth died after being turned away by eight hospitals, prompting anger over Japan's strained medical system.

Ageing Japan has a shortage of doctors and emergency services. The number of obstetricians in particular has fallen, and concerns over medical malpractice suits and long working hours have increased.

Eight hospitals in Tokyo refused to take in the 36-year-old woman earlier this month, citing reasons such as not having enough doctors, the Tokyo Metropolitan Government said on Wednesday.

An hour later, one hospital agreed to take her and carried out a Caesarean section and an operation on her brain. But the woman died three days later, Tokyo said.

'This is a big problem,' Chief Cabinet Secretary Takeo Kawamura told a news conference. 'We need to know why this happened, find out the reasons, and take the necessary steps to prevent it from happening again,' he said.

Last year, the health minister vowed to tackle this issue after a woman refused by eight hospitals miscarried in an ambulance. In 2006, a woman died after being turned away by 19 hospitals and falling unconscious during childbirth."

This is a piece of very sad news. Very sad as innocent life was loss when it could have been saved! The Chief Cabinet Secretary's comments sounded hollow and useless to the 3 lives that had been lost due to 'shortage of doctors'! For it to happened in one of the richest nations on earth is even more discouraging.

Lessons for me are:

1. we cannot be advance or developed country if we let innocent life perished because we did not have 'enough doctors'!! Unless of course ALL of them were engaged in life-saving surgeries or operations!;

2. after what happened in 2006 and 2007, it is lame to offer the exclamation that 'we must find out why this happened?!' It sounded insincere to me and it is better off NOT saying!!;

3. as Singaporeans grow older and older, such drastic cases MAY happened to our friends or even us too! We need to keep fit by eating right and exercising regular. At the same time, we hope that the main purveyor of medical care, the government, will take care of this 'shortage of doctors' thing! Let us be the envy of the world on taking care of the emerging 'grey hair' population!