'Fix the System': Indonesia Parents Seek Justice after Cough Syrup Crisis

Expensive treatments

Without compensation, the injured children's parents face treatment costs that many cannot afford.

Eighteen-month-old Raivan was unable to move after he consumed cough syrup prescribed by a pediatrician in May, said his mother Resti Safriti.

He is now fed through a tube and breathes through another in his neck.

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In the hopes of replicating physical therapy techniques, his parents resort to rocking him on an exercise ball in their Jakarta home.

"We could not afford therapy, so we do what we can with what we have at home," Resti said.

Resti and her husband had to leave their jobs to take care of him, and she begged the government to "fix the system" that has led to her child's suffering.

"Don't let other parents and children go through this," she said. "What if this happened to your own child?"

Source: Agence France-Presse