Belgium: Complaint against Muslim who refused male anesthetist

An anesthetist from Bree (Limburg) has lodged a complaint against a Muslim, because he refused aid from a male anesthetist during the emergency cesarean of his wife, according to medical newspaper Artsenkrant.

Doctor Philippe Becx from Bree was on watch at Maas en Kempen hospital on the night of August 23 when he was called for an emergency cesarean for a Muslim woman. The unborn baby had cardiac arrhythmia and would have died without the cesarean.

When the anesthetist came into the operation area the Muslim woman's husband barred him from entering. The man refused to let his wife be handled by a male doctor. The Muslim then forced his way into the operation area and demanded a female anesthetist. That was impossible, as Doctor Becx at the moment was the only anesthetist in the hospital.

After two hours of talking to the man the doctors, nurses and an imam called up, managed to bring the man to allow the male anesthetist to give his wife a injection. He demanded still that his wife's body would be completely curtained off so that only the part of skin for the injection would be uncovered. After that, the anesthesist had to leave the delivery room. With the door ajar, the doctor tries to continue the operation.

The anesthetist has now lodged a complaint at the magistrate in Tongeren for the prevention of a doctor from performing his function. He says he had incurred moral harm because he was prevented from practicing his medical aid duty while he would be responsible for eventural complications. Indeed the Muslim is being blamed for criminal negligence since he had endangered the lives of his wife and child.

The association of anesthetists sides with the complaint and joined in as party to the legal process. According to René Heylen, head of the association, this incident can't be traced back to religion but it's a case of gender discrimination. "It's unacceptable that doctors on the watch would be excluded because of their gender". The association insists on clear rules from the government that will make sure doctors are not prevented from practicing their profession.

For info: the delivery turned out well in the end.

Update: The woman was curtained off, not bandaged.

Source: HLN (Dutch)

See also: Flanders: Refusing male gynecologists

2 comments:

personalrep1 said...
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Sabra said...

This is NOT a "religion." It is something else. Makes Jim Jones look tame…

We live in Saudi. I have a friend whose husband was a doctor in the Emergency Room here and he had to quit - he couldn't take it anymore - you can't imagine how many times he was accosted or punched in the face or shoved or screamed at - all because some man takes his sick wife/mother/daughter/cousin [pretty much all the same] because the "female" isn't breathing properly or something - and this poor guy - the ER doctor - would get assaulted for putting his stethoscope on the woman's [COVERED] chest to try to "hear" the problem! Let 'em drop in their tracks if they're gonna be like that. One less breeding machine popping out little TITS every nine [eight! - the inbreeding causes a lot of premature births, birth defects and a slew of other complications/problems!] months. Whatever.

TITS: Shameless plug, but I explain what TITS are at my blog - and they aren't women's breasts!