Photo: Facebook.
We’d like to think that medical professionals take the Hippocratic oath seriously and that we can always trust our lives in their hands.
But one photo that is circulating in social media suggests that some doctors and their assistants don’t take their job as seriously as most others.
The photo above was reportedly taken at an ICU in the government hospital in Palagimata, Baubau, Southeast Sulawesi. The bleeding patient on the table is 12-year-old middle school student Ardi, who received a machete wound to the head.
Standing around him are seven medical professionals, five of whom don’t look the least bit perturbed by the situation as they smile and pose for the camera (one guy even has his tongue out).
Needless to say, the photo caused outrage in social media and has been widely reported on in the news. Ahdes, a doctor in the photo, justified taking the photo by saying it was part of their standard practice before treating a patient.
“I did instruct a nurse to take the photo for record keeping purposes [for police investigation],” he told Okezone today.
Even if that was true, it’s obviously no justification from them to be posing like they’re at a party.
We do understand that medical professionals face death and gore everyday, and that they have to be able to laugh occasionally at their jobs too, just like the rest of us. But in this age of social media, they should know how these sorts of photos could be perceived and how fast they can spread. It’s just plain unprofessional and disrespectful to the patient whose life they are trying to save
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