The sudden death of Sulafa Ahmed Al-Amri, a 12-year-old Saudi was the latest suspected case of gross negligence at a private hospital in Jeddah. She had accompanied her father for the purpose of vaccinating her younger sisters, only never to return alive. As her father Ahmed Al-Amri recounted to the local Arabic daily Al-Madinah, “She was suffering from diarrhea and was vomiting but her health condition was good. I took her along to the hospital when I was taking her younger sisters for vaccination. I wish I never did. A female doctor examined his daughter at the emergency ward of the hospital and prescribed an injection.” He said the doctor asked a nurse to give the injection to his daughter but the nurse could not find an empty bed in the emergency at the time. “She gave me the name of the solvent and the prescription and asked me to go to the other building which is also part of the hospital,” he added. Al-Amri added that in the other building he found a nurse and gave her the prescription. “The nurse put my daughter on a bed and gave her the injection. I went back to the first building to sign some papers but when I returned a short time later, I found my daughter all alone, shivering and holding her throat. She was crying to me to save her telling me that she could not breathe and was going to die.” “I ran out looking for a doctor or a nurse. My daughter was clinging to me and asking me not to leave her alone because she was going to die. I assured her that I would not leave her alone but would bring her a doctor immediately. I found a nurse who asked me not to panic because everything would be alright.” He said the nurse brought a solution and injected his daughter while she was crying and saying she was not able to breathe. “My daughter's condition started to deteriorate. The nurse sensed the seriousness of the situation and quickly summoned some doctors who gathered around her bed consulting about on her state. “The doctors ordered another injection after which she improved for a few minutes before she started deteriorating again. Sensing my state, they told me that her blood pressure was very low and they would have to take her to the intensive care unit. “An ambulance came to take my daughter to the other building of the hospital which was very near. I realized the gravity of the situation so I quickly called my brothers for support,” he said. The doctors told his brothers that the girl was allergic to the initial injection applied to her by the nurse and this caused her difficulty in breathing. “The doctors gave my daughter an injection to widen the air canal at the lungs but blood started to come out of the mouth of my daughter. The doctors tried to stop the bleeding which was coming out of her lungs though never in her life had she suffered from any pain in the chest,” he said. His brother Abdullah told him that the doctors insisted that she most likely had a history of breathing problems. “This is totally untrue. She never had any such problems before. She had only vomiting which happened just on that day,” he said. Abdullah charged that the main cause of the sudden death of his niece was the solution that was initially injected into her as the doctors themselves previously admitted. Her other uncle Hisham came down from Taif when he received the call from his brother arriving at the ICU in the early hours of the morning. “I asked to see the doctor but was told that he went home and should not be disturbed before 9 a.m. I asked to shift Sulafa to another hospital but a hospital employee told me that this was out of his hand.” Hisham said he entered into his niece's room to find her hooked up to life-support equipment. “She was looking at me trying to tell me something but the pipe in her throat prevented her from speaking. She then went into a coma and we all watched her die,” he added sorrowfully. The bereaved father said his daughter, suspecting that her end was near left a note to her mother informing her of her undivided love and asking for forgiveness. Sulafa's premature death has been a result of medical malpractice, as claimed by the family. Dr. Sami Badawood, director of Jeddah Health Affairs, has stated that the private hospital would soon be investigated. Apparently this was not the first such case of wrongful death.
