There was a lack of journalistic ethics in the coverage of Padilha's daughter's birth.

By Maria Frô, from Forum Magazine

There was a lack of journalistic ethics and an abundance of rumors from corporatists lacking medical ethics surrounding the birth of Padilha's daughter through the SUS (Brazilian public healthcare system).

Cristóvam Buarque, a senator from the PDT party, has long advocated for the idea that children of elected public officials should be required to enroll their children and other dependents in public schools. His proposal was shelved in 2014.

When Lula was diagnosed with cancer, a reactionary and prejudiced wave on the internet wished for his death. Hundreds of users urged him to treat his cancer in the public healthcare system (SUS). Interestingly, José Alencar (Lula's vice-president) spent 13 years treating his colon cancer at the private Sírio-Libanês hospital. Alencar died in that hospital, and no one ever suggested he receive treatment through the SUS. For these people, the SUS is for the poor, and private hospitals are for business vice-presidents. This reactionary and prejudiced group views the SUS not as a right to public health, but as a punishment.

In August 2014, another Workers' Party politician, Alexandre Padilha, former Minister of Institutional Relations in Lula's government and former Minister of Health in Dilma's government, who does not have health insurance and is an activist in defense of the SUS (Brazilian public healthcare system), announced that his wife, journalist Thássia Alves, was pregnant and would have her prenatal care and delivery through the SUS.

Last Thursday, February 12th, Melissa, the couple's daughter, was born.

Birth and death in the natural course of life are not news, they are facts of the life cycle of any living being. Thousands of children are born every day in Brazil. A large part of them are born in public maternity hospitals. This is not news. This is the daily life of a country that fought for public health as a right of every citizen.

Thássia, wife of Alexandre Padilha, was diagnosed with pre-eclampsia, a disease that occurs in pregnant women whose symptoms include high blood pressure, excess protein in the urine, edema, among other complications. Diagnosis during prenatal care helps save the lives of pregnant women and their babies because the pregnant woman is monitored, guided, treated, and, if necessary, the obstetrician can induce labor. It is not uncommon for babies born to mothers with pre-eclampsia to be premature.

This is what happened on Thursday with Melissa, the daughter of Thássia and Padilha. She was born in the public healthcare system (SUS) at the Vila Nova Cachoeirinha municipal hospital and maternity ward. She was born prematurely, weighing 1,3 kg, and is receiving special care in the nursery to gain weight, as is recommended for premature babies. Her mother left the ICU the morning after the birth (February 13th) and went to a regular room, and by Sunday she had already been discharged.

In other words, everything went well, with the necessary care within the context of pre-eclampsia. Both are doing well.
But how did this whole common story, which happens hundreds of times every day in the country, become headline news in Brazil's monopolized and partisan media?

On the 12th, newspapers and blogs from the monopolized media highlighted the fact as news, while reminding the reader that it concerned the "defeated PT candidate in the state elections."

Given the partisan bias we know this reactionary media practices, we could at least celebrate the fact that we were reporting something positive about the SUS (Brazilian public healthcare system); the fact that a politician, a two-time former minister and candidate for governor of the state of São Paulo, along with his partner, made a decision consistent with his discourse. But what we saw was a show of misinformation and the reverberation of the corporatism of reactionary doctors without any ethics. The same doctors who campaigned angrily against the Mais Médicos program, against the SUS.

Even a Folha blog dedicated to motherhood didn't escape the rule and reproduced links and rumors from a fascist page run by corporatists with medical degrees. In this show of disinformation and fiction, the monopolistic press spread the rumor that Padilha had rushed his daughter to the ICU of a private hospital. None of these unethical media outlets took any time to check if the lies spread on the page of the reactionary corporatists against the SUS (Brazilian public healthcare system) and the Mais Médicos (More Doctors) program, and now against Padilha and Haddad, were true. On the contrary, they served as megaphones for hoaxes spread by corporatists with medical degrees lacking medical ethics.

There was a lack of journalism; the chance to provide a public service was lost.

According to data from the Ministry of Health, hypertension is responsible for 13,8% of maternal deaths in Brazil, being the leading cause of death during pregnancy in the country. This is why prenatal care is so important; regular monitoring throughout pregnancy helps reduce these risks.

But reactionary newspapers and blogs missed a great opportunity to educate their readers about the need for prenatal care and the symptoms of pre-eclampsia, a disease that can manifest in many pregnant women. This entire public service was disregarded by both unethical doctors and a business-oriented journalism whose journalistic ethics have gone down the drain.

The bottom of the barrel is still shallow compared to the level of unethical journalism practiced in monopolized media outlets. The rumors and misinformation were so widespread that they prompted the Municipal Health Department to publish a statement clarifying what happened.

All the doctors who treated Thássia were from the SUS (Brazilian Public Health System), no residents were removed from the operating room, and neither the baby nor the mother was transferred to a private hospital, given that the municipal maternity hospital in Vila Nova Cachoeirinha is a reference center and had all the human and technological resources to care for them and all the mothers and babies who use this public facility.

On Friday night I spoke with Melissa's grandfather, Anivaldo Padilha, and on Saturday morning we spoke on the phone. He was indignant, but not surprised, because he's already used to a right wing devoid of any republicanism.

"We are outraged. It's unethical to try to use a birth to attack the SUS (Brazilian public healthcare system). It's a lie to say that residents were removed from the delivery room or that my granddaughter was taken to a private hospital, and everything else that this Facebook page of unethical doctors claims," ​​Anivaldo said by phone.

It's regrettable that pages like this are amplified in newspaper articles. This is not freedom of expression; they lacked ethical responsibility in publishing this, and the doctors in this post lack medical ethics. I can't believe it! We're talking about a leading maternity hospital; this is extremely irresponsible of these people, Anivaldo continued.

I don't have health insurance either; I have nothing against those who do, but it's a conscious choice of our family, who have fought and continue to fight for public healthcare. I use the SUS (Brazilian public healthcare system), Padilha uses the SUS. If he didn't use it, he would be attacked; when he uses it, he is attacked. It's impossible to have a dialogue with this unethical group who have even forged diplomas to attack my son, concluded Anivaldo Padilha.