A doula (home birth companion) known as Masyitah Md. Hassan has won the court case against a specialist doctor who tried to warn the public regarding the danger of home birth procedures and other medical myths. As a result, Dr. Sakinah Sulong has been ordered to pay a total of RM230,000 to the traditional practitioner.
According to a Facebook post shared by Masyitah’s husband, Muhammad Zaki Omar, the court found that Dr. Sakinah had uploaded “defamatory statements” (which was intended to raise awareness) against Masyitah on her Facebook posts on 7th, 8th and 12th February 2018. This came following the viral story about the death of an infant who was delivered through a home birth process on 4th February 2018.
In the post, Zaki also revealed that the court has ordered Sakinah (as the defendant) to do the following:
- Pay general compensation to the plaintiff (Masyitah) – RM100,000
- Pay punitive damages – RM100,000
- Cover the overall cost for the plaintiff – RM30,000
- Post an apology statement to the plaintiff on the defendant’s Facebook account.
- Order of injunction to not publish any statement linking Doulamas to the occurrence of the birth and death of an infant on 4th Feb 2018.
The issue managed to catch the attention of many netizens. Many of them came to Dr. Sakinah’s defence. In this case, a lot of them weren’t pleased with the court’s decision about the case involving the duo. Check out some of the reactions from Twitter below:
Hari ini merupakan hari yang amat mendukacitakan, apabila seorang doktor pakar yang aktif membanteras mitos perubatan,
Kalah kes dengan doula popular Malaysia, dalam mahkamah siang tadi dan perlu membayar RM230,000 kepada doula tersebut.
Hari yang hitam untuk Malaysia…
— Aiman Psikologi 🇲🇾 (@AimanPsikologi) October 26, 2020
https://twitter.com/watashi_NoUso/status/1320673959776456704
A sad day for the medical fraternity. This is what I mean when I question whether our people truly appreciate our frontliners atau sekadar manis mulut saja.
I stand with Dr. Sakinah Sulong and Medical Mythbusters Malaysia.
May the money collected be used to fight back 💪🏻 pic.twitter.com/vRXcr6LUqp
— neddo khan (@neddokhan) October 26, 2020
https://twitter.com/cikteekay/status/1320763760286470145
Dr. Sakinah is currently trending on Twitter, as many social media users continue to leave uplifting and supporting comments to the medical practitioner.
Source: Lowyat Forum.
