AL-AHSA – A Saudi woman in her 50s fell into a coma following an alleged medical error committed by an Arab doctor at Hofuf's King Fahd Hospital a few weeks ago, Al-Yaum daily reported Wednesday. Mahdi Al-Arjani, the patient's son, accused the hospital of negligence, calling on health authorities to refer his mother, who is currently being treated at King Abdulaziz Hospital in Al-Ahsa run by the National Guard, to a specialized hospital inside or outside the Kingdom. He told the newspaper that his mother had an endoscopic cysticolithectomy (removal of stone from the gallbladder) procedure on Nov. 26 at King Fahd Hospital. The doctor told the patient's family that the procedure would not take a long time as only the stone would be removed. However, the family was shocked to find out that the entire gallbladder was removed after the procedure. Right after the procedure, pus coming out of the wound was noticed. When the doctor examined it, he asked the family not to worry because it would stop after being cleaned. But her condition got worse and she had to be taken again to the operation theater on Nov. 29, her son said. She stayed five hours in there, not one hour as the doctor claimed. The family was told a five-centimeter portion of the intestine was cut off due to a small hole in the organs. To their surprise, the family discovered few hours later that 25 centimeters of the intestine was cut off, not five centimeters, and the patient had developed a contagious infection but the doctor never told them the truth. Later in the evening, the woman started to experience shortness of breath and doctors hooked her up to an oxygen machine and later had to administer general anesthesia and take the patient into intensive care. Angry at the hospital, the patient's family managed to get her referred to King Abdulaziz Hospital. When she was taken to the hospital, she was still under anesthesia for some time but later she went into a coma. Her brain MRI showed she was suffering from a brain hematoma. Al-Arjani said he filed a complaint with the director of the local Health Affairs department. He also requested the Ministry of Health to look into his complaint and have his mother referred to a specialized hospital for treatment. He called for necessary measures to be taken against the doctor and the hospital. Al-Ahsa Health Affairs' spokesman Ibrahim Al-Haji said the son's complaint was referred to the department for action and a special committee was formed to study the case.
