Riski Agri, right, displays a bottle of cough syrup that was consumed by his son Farrazka which caused him kidney problems.JAKARTA - Dinosaur-themed birthday decorations still hang on the walls of Safitri Puspa Rani's Indonesian home, where the family celebrated their youngest son's birthday last year.
"I whispered in his ears: 'The medicine is coming, please hang in there a little bit more'," Rani said, crying in her home in West Java province as she recalled the final days of her son's life.The 42-year-old mother is among more than two dozen Indonesian families seeking justice for their children, whom they allege were either killed or sickened by contaminated cough syrups.
Since October last year, the WHO has issued alerts for The Gambia, Indonesia and Uzbekistan over syrups containing the two chemicals. "Until today I still wake up in the middle of the night and check on him. We almost lost him," 34-year-old Agri said.Since the government sounded the alarm in October, Indonesia's food and drug agency has recalled 105 products after tests revealed excessive amounts of the two chemicals.
They are seeking compensation of 2 billion rupiah for every person killed and 1 billion rupiah for every person injured. But it says in the event of contamination during production, the chemicals can be consumed safely up to a level of 0.1 milligrams per millilitre.