Okaz/Saudi Gazette Al-BAHA – The mother of Samirah Al-Ghamdi, a woman who was injured in a car chase by members of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice (Hai'a) has said her daughter's recent arm amputation has left her in a state of shock. Samirah, who is pregnant, lost her husband, Abdulrahman Ahmad Al-Ghamdi recently when the Hai'a engaged the couple and their two children in a high speed car chase until their car fell off a bridge. The Hai'a had become involved in an argument with Abdulrahman after they complained about the volume of his car's stereo. When Abdulrahman attempted to leave the scene, the Hai'a pursued his vehicle and attempted to force him to stop. However, Abdulrahman lost control of the vehicle and it plunged off the bridge. He immediately died at the scene of the accident and the couple's two children were left badly injured. Samirah and her children were hospitalized at King Fahd Hospital in Al-Baha and later flown to the National Guard Hospital in Riyadh on the orders of Crown Prince Salman, Deputy Premier and Minister of Defense. Samirah's mother said what compounded the tragedy was the fact that the doctors at King Fahd Hospital had assured the family that surgery would save the victim's arm. “What really shocked us that after a few days from our arrival at the National Guard Hospital in Riyadh, doctors told us that Samirah started suffering from toxemia and the amputation of her arm was necessary to reverse the effects of the necrosis and allow healing.” She said the past two days were the saddest of her daughter's life after she received news of the death of her husband and doctors' decision to amputate her arm. She added that the condition of her grandson Khaled was improving, a matter that brought some solace to the family. “We were afraid of losing him too as he sustained serious head injuries. He suffered from a compound fracture in the skull accompanied by spinal injury and brain hemorrhage.” Meanwhile, Nasir Ahmad Al-Ghamdi, the brother of the deceased, said his brother would be buried near his parents' graves in Al-Telaqa village. “Earlier we refused to receive the corpse because the report attributed the death to a traffic accident and it was not mentioned that the death resulted from a high-speed chase. We made it clear that we would not receive the corpse unless the cause of the death was clearly stated in the report as ‘interference from the Hai'a'. When this was explicitly mentioned in the report, we completed the traffic procedures and received the corpse,” he added.
