Just came back from Bintulu for a 2-day charity work at Perpikat Bintulu. This is essentially an NGO-based Early Interventional Program Centre for handicapped children with special needs. The main sponsor of this building is Petronas, and there are many other organizations and individuals who donated money towards this 1-million ringgit centre in Bintulu.
The two-day visit with my specialist, an occupational therapist, a physiotherapist and 2 community nurses, to this centre was indeed very fruitful and rewarding, in terms of job satisfaction. Seeing those unfortunate children who needed special care and attention, makes me feel I am really lucky to be a normal person. Down's syndrome, cerebral palsy, intellectual impairment, behavioural disorder etc. are amongst the main problems we saw these two days.
There is one thing which my team thought was very unethical, was that many Down Syndrome children were prescribed the so-called "Brain Tonic" (Cergas Otak) pills by a local private GP in Bintulu, and the label on the bottle did not show the ingredients of the pills. This action could do more harm than good to the children, and worse... each bottle is charged between RM20-30! If you tried one of those chewable pills, they just tasted like any ordinary sweet! Deceiving desperate parents into buying such OTC drugs without any evidence based studies to back up, is really unethical. My specialist is now considering to bring this issue up to the MMC, and hopefully action will be taken against such irresponsible MBBS holder in town!
Some of the paintings on the walls are very beautiful. And I also included a photo of a cute Down Syndrome child (with permission) here in my blog. 
4 comments:
The label on the bottle of pill interest me. I am also using homeopathy medicine.
http://www.nutritioninstitute.com/homeopathy.html
I hope this website will interest you.
Frankly I am not against any homeopathy medicine. I consider that as an alternative or adjunctive option to the existing western medicine. However, I don't agree with some doctors who prescribe the homeopathy medicine without proper labelling of the bottle, esp about the ingredient and possible side effects. Neither do they counsel and advise the parents about the realistic expectation of the effects of the medications on their children.
yes, You are right, they ought to have consulted the parents on this alternative med and also should have proper labeling of the ingredient and potency.
How popular is homeopathy in malaysia? Are there any professional doctors who are also homeopaths?
Probably if u read the following site, u will know Malaysian Govt is "on their way" to encouraging the use of traditional medicine!
http://bernama.com.my/bernama/v3/news.php?id=193855
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