Sarah Stephen
On the same day as the immigration department made news headlines around the world for threatening to deport 104-year-old Chinese woman Cui Yu Hu, the corporate media ignored news of a case of grotesque medical negligence.
Greens Senator Kerry Nettle revealed in the Senate on March 8 that the immigration department had prevented a diabetic detainee, Masood Hooseini, from seeing an eye specialist, against the wishes of the doctor who examined him.
Hooseini gave a detailed account of his treatment to refugee supporter and regular Villawood detention centre visitor Frances Milne over the phone on February 1.
In early January, Hooseini complained of cramps and constant thirst, and was told by the staff in Villawood Medical Centre that he had diabetes. On January 19, Hooseini collapsed during the night and was taken to Liverpool hospital. The hospital doctor told him he had a blood sugar level of 32 and was on the wrong medication. The doctor wrote out a medical prescription for Hooseini to be given to the staff at Villawood Medical Centre.
However, Masood was kept on the same medication and was given a diet sheet, which he could not read because his eyes were "very fuzzy" (he saw three or four images of everything). He was not briefed on the food requirements. During this period his blood sugar rose to almost 40 and he received an injection of insulin and tablets to reduce the blood sugar level.
On January 29, Hooseini was found almost unconscious on the floor. He said he could hear but could not see, was very dizzy and had a very bad headache. He was again taken to Liverpool hospital, where a doctor told him he had blood at the back of his right eye. She instructed him to "book in to see a specialist first thing Monday morning". The doctor emphasised to the two guards who brought Hooseini that they must "make sure this man sees a specialist". The doctor also told Hooseini, "If your eyes start to water and you have headaches, these are bad signs ... you must report these immediately." When he returned to Villawood, Hooseini was given headache tablets.
On February 1, Hooseini was taken to a meeting with Villawood staff. After this meeting, Hooseini met with an immigration department officer and another officer who claimed that he had not taken his medication, and that they would not send him to a specialist until he had taken the medication for three weeks. Hooseini denied that he had missed any medication and insisted he had already been taking that medication for three weeks and it was not working.
Milne explained Hooseini's reported treatment to his solicitor, who then tried unsuccessfully to contact the Villawood manager. Hooseini lodged a complaint by phone with the Ombudsman, who said she would take action. This apparently angered the head of the Villawood Medical Centre. Hooseini said a nurse told him that when she was trying to make an appointment for him with the specialist, the head of the Medical Centre said "because he complained to the ombudsman, he will not be allowed to see any specialist".
The nurse told Hooseini that she said to the head of the medical centre: "Why are you doing this to Hooseini? Are you taking revenge on him?" The head snapped at her: "Don't involve yourself with this." The nurse then tried to make arrangements for Hooseini to see Dr Chu, the second doctor in the Villawood Medical Centre. Again she was stopped by the head of the centre, who said, "Do not arrange for him to see another doctor. I am writing my report."
Hooseini complained repeatedly to the medical centre that he was going blind. On February 7, Hooseini was allowed to see an optometrist, who twice said: "I cannot help you, I can only measure your eyes for glasses. You need a specialist."
When Milne spoke with Hooseini again on February 13, to get an update on his condition, he told her that he was very sick. He said that his eyes watered continuously and had done so for some time, that they were red and that he couldn't see out of either eye. He told Milne that he could only see lines, but could not make out any images. Hooseini reported these symptoms to the medical centre but was given only Panadeine by the medical staff.
Nettle visited Hooseini in Villawood detention centre at the beginning of March. Her office then faxed and telephoned the immigration minister's office to request an immediate examination by an eye specialist to assess Hooseini's eyes and prevent any further damage after he complained of deteriorating sight.
"The refusal of staff at Villawood detention centre and the department of immigration to allow Mr Hooseini to receive the necessary medical treatment is a prima facie case of medical negligence", Nettle said on March 8.
"It's not good enough for the minister to claim ignorance of this matter. A fax was sent to her chief of staff on the 13th of February and she was contacted twice last week but nothing has happened. Mr Hooseini is still awaiting essential treatment."
When the story of the threatened deportation of 104-year-old Hu spread like wildfire around the world on March 8, it took an embarrassed Vanstone a matter of hours to grant her an aged dependant relative visa. Public exposure of Hooseini's mistreatment and medical neglect would no doubt force a similarly swift response from Vanstone, who told the Senate on March 8, "Where someone's health is an issue, it should be attended to and attended to promptly by the appropriate people". But apart from a small article in the Sydney Morning Herald on March 8, the corporate media seems to have decided that the story is not "newsworthy".
The denial of specialist medical treatment for Hosseini's deteriorating health condition is not the first incident of its kind. In 2003, 14-year-old Iranian asylum seeker Shahin Agdar, held in Port Hedland detention centre, lost sight in his right eye and almost lost his left eye after he was repeatedly denied specialist assessment and treatment. Permanent damage was done to his sight.
It took a further 16 months after his serious condition was diagnosed, and some intensive campaigning, before the immigration department gave in to pressure and moved Shahin and his family from the remote Port Hedland detention centre, where his condition could not be monitored properly, to Melbourne's Maribyrnong detention centre.
Philip Ruddock, who was immigration minister at the time, couldn't even bring himself to admit that the boy was going blind. Challenged on the July 30 edition of ABC's Lateline, Ruddock said: "I understand he has one damaged eye and he is continuing to receive treatment for the other. So, I mean, he hasn't been made blind in detention."
Presenter Tony Jones replied: "When you say he has one damaged eye, he's blind in that eye, isn't he? ... he wasn't blind in that eye when he came to Australia and, according to Dr Ward, [due to] the four-month delay while he was [in] detention in a remote camp, he went blind in one eye." Ruddock replied: "I am not an ophthalmologist, I'm not an optometrist."
From Green Left Weekly, March 16, 2005.
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