Saudi Gazette report
ABHA — Relatives allege medical malpractice in the death of a 29-year-old Saudi man at Aseer Central Hospital in Abha about a month ago.
The hospital did not reveal the cause of Abdullah Yahya Al-Mufarah's death to the family nor did it issue them a medical report, they said.
They said the hospital did not respond to any questions regarding the cause of death.
Meanwhile, it was learned that the Health Affairs in Asir transferred the entire case report to the region's legal health committee.
Abdullah's family sent Al-Watan newspaper a copy of the complaint that they filed with the relevant authorities including the minister of health.
Recounting the case, Khaled Yahya Al-Mufarah, the brother of the deceased, said: "Abdullah was injured in a traffic accident on Shaban 20. He was transferred immediately from the accident scene to a hospital in Rafidah, and then to Asir Central Hospital on the same day."
Khaled said the situation at the hospital was quite precarious when his brother was brought there. "The gate employee was missing and the doctor did not arrive until after a long time even though the patient was brought with a broken back and bleeding in the lungs. A decision was made to admit him to the hospital despite the fact that he was not diagnosed properly," Khaled said.
"The radiologist and a male doctor told my parents that they needed to take Abdullah to the scanning room. Then they said there was no need for scanning because the neurologist had decided to perform an operation. He went into the operating room at 1 p.m. Until this time, Abdullah was breathing normally, talking and was 100 percent conscious. Then almost an hour later, they decided to cancel the operation without mentioning any reason," he added.
"My brother came out of the operation theater at 5 p.m. even though the operation was canceled at 2 p.m. While being moved to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU), he was in a deteriorating condition. The emergency doctor was very upset. There was a discussion between him and the team that transferred him from the operation room. We didn't know what was going on and Abdullah was fully unconscious," said Khaled.
Abdullah's brother said: "It was clear to us after observing the confusion in the ICU and from the testimony of one of the hospital staff that he had been a victim of medical error, but we were not informed of anything and no one explained to us the reasons for him slipping into a coma."
The young man died on Friday, the second day of Ramadan. "We do not know the cause of his death, and we were not given any medical report," Khaled said.
The Mufarah family demanded to have "a clear disclosure of the causes of Abdullah's death and the medical error the young man was subjected to. We want the authorities to hold the violators accountable."
Al-Watan contacted Asir Health Affairs for comments on the complaint by the patient's relatives. After four days of waiting, it responded by saying that the father of the dead patient had filed an official complaint and Director General of Asir Health Affairs Dr. Mohammed Bin Ali Al-Habdan decided to form a committee to investigate the charges. It said the committee would review the patient's medical file and all the procedures that had been taken from the time of the patient's arrival at the hospital until his death.
