Monday, November 12, 2007

Tie A Knot in It

A Dutch newspaper reported on October 27th that a Belgian anesthesiologist was prevented from entering his operating room to treat a patient. This post uses parts of the translation of the article done by Religion News Blog.

The patient in question was a Muslim woman needing an emergency caesarean section to allow her baby to be born.

Papa Muslim, however, didn’t like the idea of a male doctor treating his wife, no matter the exigency of the situation. Mohammed says, “no male doctors may perform life-saving treatments on Muslim women, no how, no way.” Just ask any Dutch Somali imam. I’m sure it’s in the hadith somewhere.

You have to admire how the hospital staff ad-hocced this drama:

The woman was operated with the male doctor shouting instructions from a hallway to a female nurse.

Doctor Philippe Becx from Bree, Belgium, was called to the hospital in the middle of the night because a woman had to undergo an emergency caesarean section.

However, her husband blocked the door and demanded a female anesthetist. The latter was unavailable.

After a two-hour discussion proved fruitless, an imam was summoned. The imam permitted the doctor to apply an epidural injection, but only if the woman was fully covered with only a small area of skin showing.

During the surgery itself, performed by a female gynecologist, the anesthetist was to remain in the hallway. Through a door that was slightly ajar, he shouted instructions to a nurse who was monitoring the anesthesia.

According the hospital’s directors, the doctor acted with ‘admirable understanding.’ He would have been in his right to have the man removed by police.

Well, duh. And is the hospital even at this moment re-writing their rules to make certain that Muslim males may not interfere with medical or surgical procedures just because they don’t like Western culture’s indifference regarding the gender of the practitioner?

This would be amusing if it were not so ignorantly antediluvian.
- - - - - - - - -
At least the doctor has filed a complaint that he was discriminated against by this fundamentalist idiot. You know the f.i. would’ve sued the hospital had his wife been endangered by his antics.

The anesthetist has now filed a complaint with an investigative judge, charging that he was hindered in fulfilling his functions, and that he was discriminated against since he was not allowed to do his job merely because he is a man.

The doctor further claims moral damage, since he could not fulfill his medical duties while he would still be liable should any complications have occurred.

Evidently this kind of idiocy has occurred before:

The Belgian organization of anesthetists says there have been other incidents between Muslims and male doctors. The organization demands clear guidelines from the government. “Tolerance is nice, but it may not jeopardize safety,” says chairman René Heylen.

“Tolerance is nice?? Not when it involves life-and-death issues, it isn’t. And in Europe, as in America, tolerance is in many cases nothing but lock-step absurdity carried to an extreme difficult to comprehend fully in all its bizarre surrealism.

Oh, by the way, Papa Muslim is charged with endangering the lives of his wife and child, though the doctor’s yelling into the operating room did make sure that the patients survived their relative’s 7th century approach to modern life. It makes you wonder, though, what kind of penal sentence will be imposed.

I can think of a very effective and final penal sentence for this sanctimonious missing link. Imagine letting your wife suffer through hours of useless, painful labor just to satisfy your religious lust. I hope she ties a knot in it.


Hat tip: Yorkshire Miner

13 comments:

Nate said...

Dymphna-

Sorry for derailing this thread on the first comment, but I must ask...

Have you forgotton the Marine's birthday?

Last year you had a very nice tribute. This year, not so much.

Semper Fidelis,
S.E.

Félicie said...

I am sorry if this sounds very cold and unfeeling. They should have just let this woman and her baby die instead of negotiating with the husband for two hours and making this complicated arrangement with the nurse. Should we bend backwards to help muslims? Two muslims fewer - it this so tragic?

Dymphna said...

smitten eagle--

I do love Nov 10th. If you notice I didn't post at all that day or several days previous.

I'm just getting back to it now.

Gung ho...

Dymphna said...

Felicie:

Life is precious...to everyone. To decide some are worth saving and some aren't is to go way past where I'm willing to travel.

This incident could not have happened if the hospital had planned ahead. It is not the first time, but they keep doing "wash, rinse, repeat, wring your hands" over and over.

They weren't prepared for a war of numbers. Neither are we.

History Snark said...

The doctor won't win Jack, and the FI won't pay any worthwhile penalty. Why? Because it would be discriminating against his rights.

Welcome to the 21st century.

Now that there's a known public solution to the "problem" my guess is that there'll be a lot more instances of this "solution". And eventually, some poor doctor will wind up fighting for his freedom to practice medicine when a patient doesn't make it.

Profitsbeard said...

Easier just to deport the imbeciles and not let them breed on your bucks.

songdongnigh said...

Two things:
If the patient and her husband had been Christians of Jews or any other religion, he would have been perp walked out of the hospital. The other thing is that no one seems to have asked the woman what she wanted to be done. Any way you cut it, it's another step toward dhimmitude.

Simon de Montfort said...

"ask the woman what she wanted"??

Where is that in the Koran or hadith? Yes, it's the elephant in the operating room. So it the hospital's fear......

pela68 said...

Oh yes. I recognise this sort of behaviour from muslim patients (or really from their next of kins).

Many times I had no chance at all to make a deascent amamnesis because of the patients and their relatives unvillingness to let me even touch the patient. Mostly they came in in hordes, sometimes ten to fifteen family members, all shouting and trying to explain what the condition was of this poor vieled woman.

How easy is it to do a diagnosis when you're not even allowed to take a BP or make use of your stetoscope?

Sometimes I had to use physical force to expel relatives, just to be able to treat muslim womans.

When will they learn?

Unknown said...

How can you deal with such stupidity!? Simply jaw-dropping.

Ron said...

Two muslims fewer - it this so tragic?

Not tragic at all. What I don't understand is why bend even a little for these monsters? Why would a medical worker subject him/herself to a heightened degree of liability, for what?

spackle said...

What happens if the Muslims get the future they want? There will be no educated women left to perform any kind of medical procedure. Can you just see a man yelling directions to a burqa clad woman who can barely read let alone practice medecine. Reminds me of the cultural revolution.

ChrisLA said...

There is a script for this situation, and it should be pasted to the back of every doctor's badge. General Charles Napier, one-time conqueror and commander-in-chief of India, was faced with a Hindu grandee who insisted on keeping the Indian tradition of burning alive the wives with their predeceased husbands. Napier said,

“You say that it is your custom to burn widows. Very well. We also have a custom: when men burn a woman alive, we tie a rope around their necks and we hang them. Build your funeral pyre; beside it, my carpenters will build a gallows. You may follow your custom. And then we will follow ours.”

There is no "admirable understanding" when responsible people allow barbaric practices to jeopardize health and safety.

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