A Team of Medics Treat Baduy Indigenous People, Paid with Crops

TheIndonesia.id - A story about a team of medics who treated and performed surgery on Baduy indigenous people in Banten has gone viral. Patients and their families even handed various crops to the medical team as a token of gratitude.

Muhammad Arif Kirdiat first shared the story on Facebook, and it’s re-shared on Twitter by user @gloriahermawan on Monday, December 20.

Kirdiat said a doctor named Omat Rachmat Hasbullah and his team were preparing to operate a person from Cibeo village, Baduy Dalam, after a Friday prayer. The Baduy Dalam community is famous for strictly following a set of beliefs and taboos, including in refusing any form of technological advancements. For this reason, the surgery took place in a village health post (Poskesdes), located in Baduy-Kebon Cau village border in Binong, Tangerang.

The location can only reached by foot, and the team had to walk for 40 minutes to reach the place from Cibeo village.

Kirdiat said every medical decision and treatment was collectively decided after discussion between members of the community.

“Observation, analysis, and decision on what to do and how it’s done were decided through discussion and must’ve been approved by a number of people,” he wrote.

Crops for the Docs

Jaro Sami, who is grandfather of the patient, said he was extremely worried about his grandchild’s condition. A year ago, the patient sprained his leg, and after visits to different masseurs, there wasn’t any improvement.

During the surgery, hundreds of Baduy people waited outside the Poskesdes. Afterwards, many of them got themselves of checked by the medical team. Some of them also brought their children to be checked by the doctors.

To show their gratitude, members of Baduy Dalam community handed different crops to the team.

“When we were leaving, Mr. Jaro, father of Mursid and Panggiwa Kemik gave us bananas, palm sugar, and of course, durian,” Kirdiat said in his post.

It was a special occasion when the closed Baduy people agreed for the surgery to be performed on one of them.

“A history was written when an orthopedist came to Baduy and performed surgery on a Baduy Dalam,” Kirdiat wrote. “Thank you, Doctor Omat R Hasbullah and team for visiting Baduy. May Allah repay all the good deeds.”

People Are Moved and Touched

As of Monday, the tweet has been liked 11,000 times, and most people said they were moved and touched, both by the team and Baduy people’s kind gesture.

One person praised the medics for successfully creating a negative pressure in a limited condition and space to carry out the medical procedure. Rooms with negative pressure are important parts of health facilities as they prevent room-to-room cross-contamination.

Another user shared their own experience of teaching in rural area where parents used to hand them with different kinds of crops.

“I remember when I taught in a rural area, parents of the students used to pay me with crops like fruits, rice, and other goods – and the values were actually higher than the standard. It makes me want to cry, but I’m also very touched,” the person wrote.