I removed 2,000 nails from patient’s body, says surgeon promoting Islamic therapy
Advocating Islamic therapy to complement modern medicine, an Indonesian surgeon said he pulled over 2,000 nails from the body of a female patient in Sumatra two years ago, The Star reported today.
Dr Sagiran Sukardi, however, did not believe that his patient was inflicted with the supernatural – "sihr" (sorcery) or "jinn" (genies), even after he pulled over 70 nails from her legs and feet, the portal reported.
As a surgeon, he was sceptical when he found even more rusty nails in her legs and feet the next day when treating her at his hospital after her first operation in 2012.
“Surprisingly, a day after the operation I found more nails in the same areas again. At the time, I didn’t think sorcery had anything to do with it,” he was quoted as saying at a forum titled “Jinn and Sihr in Medicine" at Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) yesterday.
Dr Sarigan from Universiti Muhammadiyyah Yogjakarta’s medical faculty, said his understanding of medical practice was challenged when he treated the woman.
The condition of the patient, Supiyati, 25, defied medical logic, he said, showing doctors, psychiatrists, academics and researchers at the forum pictures and X-rays of her infected wounds and the nails under her skin.
He said he consulted his colleagues and religious teachers about Supiyati's condition, and then decided to use complementary Islamic therapy to treat her.
He said he recited verses from the Quran when he dressed her wounds or whenever she was in pain.
"That caused her to throw up. You cannot imagine it but there were even more nails along with hair in her vomit,” he said, adding that it was suspected that Supayati’s first husband, who disappeared after she underwent treatment, was responsible for the sorcery.
Dr Sarigan said the case showed that there was a need for a holistic approach, which included spiritual and religious treatment, at hospitals.
The Star Online also quoted forum moderator Associate Professor Dr Supyan Hussin of UKM as saying that "Islamic complementary therapy can be used to treat patients whose illnesses cannot be diagnosed”.
He said Islamic therapy had nothing to do with black magic or witchcraft, which was against Islam.
He also reportedly said participants at the forum might pass a resolution, which would then be submitted to the Health Ministry.
UKM’s Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, to avoid a backlash, denied it was the organiser of the forum. – November 30, 2014.