After Cleared From Covid-19, Pregnant Selangor Mum Allegedly Refused By Doctors For Her Delivery
After she was discharged from Hospital Sungai Buloh free of Covid-19, she still faced stigma from doctors.
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Twitter user @HazwaniHaniMKay found herself testing positive for Covid-19 when she was 37 weeks pregnant. While she panicked over the health implications, what she faced next was worse: the “Covid-19 stigma” from friends, neighbours, and even her own doctor!
In a Twitter thread, Hazwani recounted how she woke up with muscle pain in her body and a bad flu. Worried for her health, she immediately had her husband send her to a private hospital in Rawang, where she usually goes for her monthly pregnancy check-up.
Since she was due for a monthly check-up for her baby anyway, her doctor suggested that she be admitted. As a precaution, she was warded in the isolation room and immediately took the Covid-19 swab test.
It was the first time being alone and separated from her husband since they got married, and she wasn’t allowed any visitors either.
I felt really scared!
Hazwani on being isolated.
When one of the nurses entered her ward later that night, Hazwani wasn’t feeling particularly anxious. She assumed that she would be fine since she exhibited no symptoms. However, she really did test positive.
paling sedih.
— Kween Regina ♡ (@HazwaniHaniMKay) December 14, 2020
we can only see each other within the line je. no last hugs no touch no nothing. just a quick one and he was told the procedure for the transfer to sg buloh. so this was the last time lah, then bermulalah my 14 days of quarantine pic.twitter.com/BqXlFnVg7L
While she was still digesting the news and informing her family and coworkers, an ambulance had come to take her to Sungai Buloh hospital, one of the main Covid-19 hospitals.
Stigma From Strangers…
During her quarantine period, Hazwani was confined to her room. Still, she notes that the Hospital Sungai Buloh healthcare frontliners were extremely friendly and took great care of all the Covid-19 patients.
(Credit: @HazwaniHaniMKay/Twitter)
However, things were different in the world outside. News of her positive result had spread, and she was shocked to hear false statements being made about her and her family. Some even confidently said that she was picked up via ambulance from her house!
Worse still, her family lost their privacy as strangers drove by to take photos of her house and her family’s car to spread around. Even her wedding photos weren’t spared.
This is a disease, not a crime!
Hazwani on the invasion of privacy and her family being mistreated.
…To Stigma From Doctors.
Even after she was discharged from Hospital Sungai Buloh free of Covid-19, she still faced stigma- and this time from her own doctors, no less.
Hospital Sungai Buloh had given her a full report and pronounced her free of Covid-19, which would allow her to undergo normal birth at any hospital as she is no longer a risk.
While she originally planned to give birth at the private hospital in Rawang and had conducted all her monthly check-ups there, the hospital allegedly refused to attend to her. Her claims that her regular doctor never offered an explanation either.
(Credit: Yusof Mat Isa/Malay Mail)
Instead, she had to undergo her delivery in Hospital Selayang. While admittedly better than the private hospital, Hazwani notes that Covid-19 stigma still exists in Hospital Selayang, as she was not allowed to wait in a waiting room and had to undergo another Covid-19 swab test (which came back negative).
Still, Haswani notes that despite the stigma, she’s grateful that her baby was born happy and healthy, while her husband and family are all free of Covid-19.
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