SEVERE ACUTE RESPIRATORY SYNDROME

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Sars misdiagnosis proves a costly and bitter experience

Wachira Thaichon with receipts for her medical expenses. The businesswoman and her husband have asked the Public Health Ministry to confirm she is not suffering from Sars. _ APICHART JINAKUL 280,000-baht bill for nine-day treatment

Ploenpote Atthakor

When Wachira Thaichon was admitted to Vichaiyuth hospital on April 15 with symptoms similar to those of Sars, it was a nightmare for the family.

Last Thursday, the 42-year-old businesswoman was finally released from the hospital, with no trace of the deadly disease being found. According to the hospital's documents, Mrs Wachira had pneumonia and a bladder infection.

But the nightmare is not over yet.

The family has to find 280,000 baht to pay for the nine-day treatment.

Before being linked with Sars, Mrs Wachira said, the hospital said she had kidney problems.

`Then it said I had liver disease and then typhoid. Sars was the last to come up. A doctor said my x-ray films showed my lungs had become white,'' she said, adding that she was given a huge amount of medicine. Both her arms became bruised from injections.

`It seems my lungs were x-rayed daily,'' she said.

Once she was suspected of Sars, she received five injections, which cost 17,000 baht each.

Her husband Panthai, a political science lecturer at Chulalongkorn University, said the hospital told him the cost was justified because it had saved his wife's life.

`Moreover, the hospital said it had to seal off the entire 11th floor where my wife was admitted. In doing so, the hospital said it suffered a huge loss in income,'' he said.

Besides the money problem, Mr Panthai said the whole family was upset by the stigma that had unfairly been attached to them.

Upon being released from the hospital, the couple were made to sign an agreement that they would continue to stay in quarantine for another 10 days and wear masks and gloves.

Mr Panthai said the last straw was an interview given by the chief of the Disease Control Department, Dr Charal Trinvuthiphong, on a TV programme yesterday morning, in which he claimed his wife ``had the disease and was recovering''.

He said he felt the Public Health Ministry was taking advantage of his wife's case by hoping to gain credit.

While the couple have no intention of suing the hospital, they want the ministry to clear the woman's name in public immediately.

`She did not have the disease in the first place, so the ministry should not have used her name to boost its own credit. If the Public Health Ministry did indeed have a cure for Sars, would it not now be helping a country like China?'' Mr Panthai said.

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