In my series of horror stories I decided I could not let this one out. The case of Joshua Goldberg’s death at the Bumrungrad hospital has created some waves. To be more precise, the father of Joshua Goldberg has created some waves.
He has sued the Bumrungrad hospital and some of its employees. He claims that six drugs were administered to his son, that are contraindicated, according to the Physician’s Desk Reference. Worse, he says that his son was allergic to some of the drugs he received and that this was known to the hospital. He also raises questions about the ownership of the Bumrungrad hospital and some related stock exchange filings, although I cannot see the connection to the sad case of his son.
Joshua Goldberg’s father is asking the Bumrungrad to set up a foundation in honor of his sons lost life. To add more pressure to his negotiations with the Bumrungrad hospital, he has started a press campaign with negative information about what he calls the ’self-declared leader in medical tourism’.
He also pays Google for a sponsored link to his bumrungraddeath.com website everytime a user enters ‘Bumrungrad hospital’ into the search engine (try it out).
Ironically he uses his aggressive tactics to pressurized the hospital to fund medical services for Buddhist monks.
I wish I could report both sides of the story, but I have not been able to find any official statement by the Burmungrad about this case, nor have I found any independent press article about the outcome or progress of the ongoing court cases.
If you want to know more about the case, you can find all press releases by searching for Joshua Goldberg and Bumrungrad. Let’s hope this issue is resolved soon and that if the accusations turn out to be true, a system is put in place to prevent a repetition of the same mistakes.
Yes well I must admit everytime I see a doctor at Bumrungrad (or any Thai hospital for that matter) they ask me whether I’m allergic to any drugs. It says so right on the flipping chart - why not just look?! So if I didn’t say I’m allergic to penicillin in an emergency situation I presume they would just give it to me.
I had a tooth fracture on a Saturday night in Bangkok ( a city of some 8-12 million people), and it turned out none of the big “private” hospitals had a 24-hour dental emergency care available.
I remember a guy in the UK who leads a similar campaign against private hospitals and their overblown claims to better care.
His wife was misdiagnosed by a private hopsital, suffered for a couple of weeks, and when the situatoin was absolutely unbearable one night (while an inpatient) it turned out the only doctor in this entire London hospital was a locum! She was terminally ill but needlessly suffered for a couple of weeks.
The moral to his story was that when you are chronically ill, you should always opt for a large institutional hospital…if you’re after a nicer room and prettier, friendlier nurses, even the institutional places often have a private wing. If something really wrong happens and there is a real medical emergency in some “nice” hotel-like private hospital you could be well and truly stuffed!!
Comment by allan — June 9, 2007 @ 3:37 pm
One other thing this British guy learned..
He said to me: “Before agreeing to ‘check-in’ to a private hospital, always ask to see the roster of doctors and professonials staffing at nights and weekends. Is there a cardiac specialist on duty at 3 am? Is there a general surgeon? A anasthetist?”
It something most of us would never ask - but when you think about it is is critical..
Comment by allan — June 9, 2007 @ 3:41 pm