Maid's illness cost employer $1000 in medical bills
All she wanted was a maid to help take care of her grandchildren.
Instead, she ended up with a medical bill of more than $1,000 and a family of 12, including two infants, exposed to the risk of tuberculosis (TB).
The infants are now undergoing medication and regular reviews, although they have not been diagnosed with the illness.
It all started on Jan 22, when Ms Siti Rohama, 32, an Indonesian, joined Madam Loh Kham Hwa's family as a domestic helper.
The 56-year-old housewife, who was expecting a grandson in February, wanted an extra pair of hands to help her.
The director of Team-Up Resources, Ms Siti's foreign domestic worker (FDW) agency, Mr Ng Khim Hock, 56, told Madam Loh that Ms Siti had passed all the necessary checks and procedures, including the medical examination under the Ministry of Manpower's (MOM) guidelines for FDWs.
Ms Siti's pre-employment health screening test was done at a local lab specialising in check-ups for foreign workers, one that Mr Ng said his company has been working with for more than 10 years.
But Madam Loh claimed that Ms Siti was already coughing from the moment she stepped into her car at the agency.
"But since the medical check up showed nothing out of the ordinary, I thought that it was just a normal cough that would go away," she said.
So for four months until the end of May, Ms Siti helped to look after Madam Loh's first grandchild, a boy, who was five months old in January.
When Madam Loh's daughter-in-law, Dr Siti Aisha, 28, gave birth to a baby boy in February, Ms Siti started looking after the infant as well.
Throughout this period, she had been coughing continually.
Madam Loh said: "We gave her some Chinese medicine and also some leftover cough medicine we had at home, but nothing seemed to work."
"My daughter-in-law, who is a doctor, also prescribed some cough medication, but her cough would always come back."
It wasn't until May 26, when Ms Siti developed a high fever, that Madam Loh suspected something might be wrong.
Despite further medication from Madam Loh's daughter-in-law, the fever persisted.
On June 1, Madam Loh finally sent Ms Siti to her family clinic, Joy Clinic & Surgery at Yishun, for a check-up.
Ms Siti was then referred to Yishun Polyclinic for a chest X-ray and subsequently diagnosed as having contracted TB.
Madam Loh and her family were shocked.
Chest Radiography For Infants - News
Ms Siti was then referred to Yishun Polyclinic for a chest X-ray and subsequently diagnosed as having contracted TB. Unwilling to expose her family's health to further risk, Madam Loh sent Ms Siti back to the agency that very evening.
As a reference, according to the World Nuclear Association, here are some of the basic facts: In medical treatments, 0.1 is the quantity of mSv in a chest X-Ray, 0.4 in a mammogram X-Ray and 10 is the dose in a full body CT scan.
“The Russian and Ukrainian-made dosimeters sell out in a flash.” The bottom line: The Fukushima accident has hiked sales of Geiger counters. Yet radiation levels never reached 1/100th of that in a single chest X-ray.
The highest level was still below 1/100th of the radiation dose from a single chest X-ray. The city's metropolitan government in March warned residents to avoid giving tap water to infants after radioactive iodine was found in the city's supply at
The highest level was still below 1/100th of the radiation dose from a single chest X-ray. The city's metropolitan government in March warned residents to avoid giving tap water to infants after radioactive iodine was found in the city's supply at
Revista Panamericana de Salud Pública - Cost-effectiveness of ...
ORIGINAL RESEARCH INVESTIGACIÓN ORIGINAL
Costo-efectividad de la radiografía de tórax en lactantes con sospecha clínica de bronquiolitis viral en Colombia
Cost-effectiveness of chest x-rays in infants with clinically suspected viral bronchiolitis in Colombia
Carlos E. Rodríguez Martínez Clínica Reina Sofía, Bogotá, Colombia.
RESUME
OBJETIVO: Estimar el costo-efectividad de no realizar radiografía de tórax a ningún lactante con sospecha clínica de bronquiolitis viral versus realizarla en todos estos pacientes de manera rutinaria, que es la práctica más utilizada hoy en Colombia.
MÉTODOS: Se realizó un estudio de costo-efectividad en el que se compararon las estrategias consistentes en tomar radiografía a todos y no tomar radiografía de tórax a ningún lactante con sospecha clínica de bronquiolitis viral. El desenlace principal fue la proporción de diagnósticos correctos. El horizonte temporal fue la evolución de la bronquiolitis. La perspectiva fue la del tercer pagador y los costos se obtuvieron de las tarifas vigentes en una clínica en la ciudad de Bogotá. Se realizaron análisis de sensibilidad determinísticos y probabilísticos.
RESULTADOS: La estrategia de no realizar radiografía de tórax a ningún paciente fue dominante en relación con realizarla en todos los casos de manera rutinaria, con un costo promedio de US$ 111,0 y una tasa de diagnósticos correctos de 0,8020, comparados con los valores correspondientes de US$ 129,0 y 0,7873 para la estrategia de tomar radiografía rutinaria a todos estos pacientes. La variable más influyente fue el costo hospitalario de la neumonía. En el análisis de sensibilidad probabilístico, la estrategia de no radiografiar a ningún lactante fue dominante en 61,1% de las simulaciones.
CONCLUSIONES: Los resultados sugieren que no realizar radiografía de tórax de rutina a lactantes con sospecha clínica de bronquiolitis viral es una estrategia costo-efectiva respecto a la práctica común de realizarla en todos estos casos, dado que arroja una mayor proporción de diagnósticos correctos a un menor costo promedio por paciente. No obstante, harán falta nuevos estudios con muestras más representativas de todos los establecimientos de salud e incluir la estrategia de tomar radiografía de tórax únicamente a pacientes que tengan predictores de anormalidades radiológicas.
Chest Radiography For Infants - Bookshelf
Pediatric Chest Imaging, Chest Imaging in Infants and Children
Most infants and children who become infected with M. tuberculosis are ... Imaging methods such as chest X-ray, chest US and chest CT are extremely ...Radiological Imaging of the Neonatal Chest
Brussels: CEC, 1996 Chotas H, Ravin C (2001) Digital chest radiography with a ... by radiographs to preterm infants in a neonatal intensive care unit. ...The Chest X-Ray, A Survival Guide
Interpretation of chest radiographs in infants with cough and fever. ... Svedstrom E, Puhakka H, Kero P. How accurate is chest radiography in the diagnosis ...Critical Care of Children with Heart Disease, Basic Medical and Surgical Concepts
24.2.4 Chest Radiography In neonates and infants, the chest X-ray typically shows cardiomegaly and pulmonary edema. Pulmonary edema is secondary to LV ...Encyclopedia of Diagnostic Imaging
The chest radiograph in infants on high frequency ventilation is the best diagnostic ... Otherwise the chest radiograph is not different from those infants ...Everyday Guide Directory
CHEST RADIOGRAPHY
Clarks Positioning in Radiography which should the standard for ... Infants may be fitted with so-called. apnoea monitors, which sound an alarm when children stop breathing for ...
XrayCredits.com: Xray CME certification credits for Xray ...
Neonatal Chest Radiography for Technologists. Author: Michael J. ... Almost all infant chest radiographs are done within the nursery. In our newborn intensive ...
Respiratory Distress in the Newborn - October 1, 2007 ...
Chest radiography shows diffuse parenchymal infiltrates, a "wet silhouette" around the ... Chest radiograph of an infant with transient tachypnea of the newborn. Reprinted with ...
Gonadal protection methods in neonatal chest radiography ...
One of the primary methods of monitoring infants in the neonatal unit is through chest radiography. Daily chest radiographs of very ill neonates are...
Point-of-Care Guides: Clinical Diagnosis of Pneumonia in ...
... as an infiltrate seen on chest radiography in a child with symptoms ... Fever, tachypnea, nasal flaring (in infants), and reduced oxygen saturation are predictive of pneumonia. ...