Wake Up Singapore apologises for posting woman's claims that she lost her baby following KKH police report
A screengrab of an Instagram post by Wake Up Singapore on Mar 25, 2022 with an admission from an unidentified woman that her claims against KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital were doctored.
SINGAPORE: Alternative news source Wake Up Singapore has apologised for publishing a woman's claims that she bled and lost a baby during a four-hour wait at the accident and emergency department at KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital (KKH).
"We now realise that we may have been fed lies at every turn," Wake Up Singapore said in a statement posted on its social media platforms on Friday evening.
The alternative news site published a post at 5.10pm containing a screenshot of a correspondence with the unidentified woman saying her "recollection is false".
The woman said she had sent "things in the heat of the moment" because she was agonising over the loss of a previous miscarriage which was handled by the hospital.
Wake Up Singapore said the admission came after it had informed the woman of the police report that KKH had filed.
The site had earlier published a redacted hospital bill dated Feb 28 and call logs alleging that KKH had spoken to the woman on the phone.
"We have since realised that her call logs, her invoices, and her correspondence, may have all been doctored," said Wake Up Singapore.
The woman's claims that she suffered a miscarriage when she was left unattended for hours had been widely shared on social media.
This was refuted by KKH saying that the hospital can "definitively say that there is no such scenario" and the "online report on the incident at the Urgent O&G Centre is incorrect".
Wake Up Singapore on Friday evening said: "Since we received the story, we had acted in good faith by taking steps to verify her account (we had asked for her [sic] for the bills, and subsequent and prior correspondence with KKH), and by publishing her story as it was relayed to us."
It added that the woman had messaged them with her real name, occupation and Instagram account.
Wake Up Singapore noted that it had kept the woman updated with developments as well as KKH's press statements and the questions that it had sent to the hospital amid the woman's repeated requests for privacy.
It stated that it was never its intention to "besmirch anyone" or spread falsehoods, and that it had the "utmost respect for healthcare professionals".
In a comment on its Facebook post on the matter, Wake Up Singapore added that the woman told them: "The evidence is not doctored but the recount is not exactly what happened, there was no miscarriage on that day".
"We don't know anymore honestly so we will just leave this here. We are sorry once again ..." it added.
Wake Up Singapore said that it would cooperate fully with the authorities and the investigations.
This incident comes after a nine-month pregnant woman lost her baby when she was left unattended for about two hours while bleeding at the National University Hospital (NUH) A&E department.
