DAMMAM – The 22-year-old Saudi woman named Amal Al-Metairi is a victim of Thalassemia and medical negligence. She breathed her last at Dammam Medical Complex on Sunday after battling for her life for nearly a week. Amal, a senior college student, was unable to accomplish her dream of securing her bachelor's degree in geography. Thalassemia is a hereditary blood disorder in which the body makes an abnormal form of hemoglobin that results in excessive destruction of red blood cells. Amal inherited the disease from her parents but the sickness did not prevent her from continuing her education. However, medical negligence and carelessness shattered all her dreams and finally led her from the corridors of her university to the graveyard, according to a report in Al-Yaum Arabic daily. Amal's mother blamed the negligence on medical staff. “I accompanied her to the hospital in mid Ramadan (early August) in order to donate blood for her regular monthly blood transfusions. Since then, her condition worsened with a sharp fall in her blood count plus a high fever,” she said, adding that as a result she was admitted to Dammam Central Hospital two times in the same month. The following month, Amal's health condition further deteriorated with symptoms of jaundice and high fever. Her mother took her to the hospital where she underwent blood transfusion two times in a matter of weeks. The number of transfusions increased to three in the month of November. When Amal's condition became serious once again after 12 days, the mother took her to the hospital where she was given Panadol and pain killers without doctors carrying out any examinations and/or laboratory tests. “Immediately after consuming the medicine, she suffered from acute breathing problems and we took her to the emergency room of the hospital where there were no doctors to attend the case. We had to wait for hours for the doctor to come in the next morning. After checking her, he said her liver and kidney enzyme count was higher than usual and referred her to a specialist doctor but that doctor came only after three hours. During all this time, Amal wasn't given any medication or treatment.” Amal's mother said that the specialist examined her daughter and said she was suffering from malaria. Even though Amal's condition was critical and she had slipped into a coma four times, she was not given any treatment. Amal was finally admitted to the Intensive Care Unit at 10:00 p.m. that night. The next morning, hospital authorities contacted Amal's family and told them that her liver and kidneys had stopped functioning. They asked her mother to come in and sign some papers so that the hospital could take the necessary procedures. “When Amal's condition became critical, she was put on dialysis and was given intravenous injections. Last Saturday, the consulting doctor prepared a medical report recommending that Amal be taken to Prince Sultan Medical City in Riyadh but she was not in a position to travel, and she died the next morning,” said her mother. Amal's family said they have yet to receive a medical report from the hospital about the causes of her death.
