Published: Sep 15, 2011 23:36 Updated: Sep 15, 2011 23:36
JEDDAH: A five-member panel set up by Health Minister Dr. Abdullah Al-Rabeeah is questioning 16 doctors, nurses and technicians at a government maternity and children’s hospital in Jeddah for allegedly causing the deaths of two Saudi women soon after they gave birth.
Relatives of the two women accused the hospital staff of negligence and urged authorities to take action against them. According to informed sources, one woman died because she was prescribed the wrong medicine while the other due to a blood infection.
Hospital authorities had handed over the women’s bodies to their relatives without informing them of the real reasons for their deaths. Foreign doctors involved in the case have been banned from traveling abroad until investigations are completed.
Majed Al-Sulami, husband of one victim, said the death of his wife, who is mother of two girls, has turned his life upside down. “I took her to hospital last month when she had labor pains and doctors told me that she would have a natural delivery. After a few hours they gave me the good news that a baby boy had been born. Half an hour later, they asked me to sign a paper authorizing an emergency surgery to remove her uterus because of internal bleeding,” he said. But her condition went from bad to worse after the operation.
Al-Sulami, who works for the Bureau of Investigation and Prosecution, said his children are now being looked after by my wife's two sisters.
Majed Al-Ansari, the second woman’s husband, said his wife had to undergo surgery for the delivery.
“After the surgery she had a high temperature but the nurses did not give her the proper treatment. Then they shifted her to the intensive care unit. Doctors later told me she required another surgery to remove water from her stomach. Following the second surgery she lost consciousness and doctors said it was the effect of tranquilizers.”
Al-Ansari said he could not believe his ears when doctors told him that his wife had died.
“The hospital authorities had given a different reason for her death to hide their crime,” he said.
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