Despite being a small country, the medical service in Singapore is often highly sought out throughout the world with good reason. We’ve got well-trained doctors, advanced medical facility and great healthcare benefits. Then again, nothing is ever perfect, and mistakes are inevitable.
According to Mothership, Celine Wu was to undergo surgery to have a catheter inserted for her peritoneal dialysis. After weighing her options with her surgeon, Dr Tang, at Singapore General Hosptial (SGH), it was concluded that the catheter would be inserted on the right side of her stomach for her comfortability.
However, things didn’t go as planned. Instead, everything went wrong.
After her surgery back in November 2020, Wu woke up to find that not only was she operated on by a different surgeon, the surgery was done on the left side of her stomach. Just imagining the severity of the mistake is giving me shivers.
To say that Wu’s life has become all that more difficult now is an understatement. And the worst part of it all? Wu and her family haven’t been able to get a hold of the surgeon that performed the surgery, which is seriously messed up.
We understand that the catheter was not inserted at the site which Ms Wu had preferred but we would like to assure her that it does not affect the function of the catheter for peritoneal dialysis.
While the medical team had checked in on Ms Wu daily during her stay in SGH, we regret that her specific request to see the surgeon was not conveyed. We apologise for the lapse in communication. We are in touch with Ms Wu to address her concerns.
We are also working on improving communication among our staff to avoid causing patients unnecessary anxiety.
Credits to Mothership
SGH has since apologised for the mistake pathetically and has offered to conduct another surgery to correct the issue. But Wu and her husband have declined it, stating that she’s not a piece of meat to be cut open whenever required, especially given her other medical history concerns.
Frankly, I haven’t been to any surgery before, but this is scary as hell. It’s a grave mistake that could have ended up turning ugly at any moment! And a simple sorry isn’t going to fix this problem; this woman deserves compensation for the misery she endured.
Thankfully, I’m not the only one who feels that way about SGH mishandling this situation.
And if that wasn’t crazy enough, as it turns out, this isn’t the first time SGH has screwed up! According to Netizens, this is all too common at SGH.
What in the world?!
I’m not one to put much stock in people complaining about things on the internet. Then again, after reading some of these comments regarding patients at SGH, it’s hard not to pay attention.
Hopefully, Wu and her family will be able to get the justice they deserve for this horrendous mistake on SGH’s part. It’s time to hold hospitals accountable for these kinds of blunders.