Saudi Gazette report JEDDAH – A Saudi female student, who traveled to the United States to complete her postgraduate studies as a nutritionist, has completely lost her sight following a medical error at a Texas medical institution, Al-Watan reported. Abeer Salih, born legally blind in the left eye, was leading a regular life seeing out of her right eye, until the day she went to see an eye doctor at Texan Eye Clinic in Texas last April. She told Al-Watan that she was being treated at the King Khaled Eye Specialist Hospital (KKESH) in Riyadh before traveling to Texas for study and was taking the medications prescribed by her ophthalmologist. “Last April I strained my right eye after spending long hours reading. I felt a lot of pain and my good eye felt scratchy. I went to see a doctor in Texas,” said Abeer, who finished her undergraduate studies cum laude in the Kingdom. The ophthalmologist at the Texas clinic asked her to stop taking all previous medications and wear medical protective lens. He also prescribed an antibiotic eye drop. During her next visit to the same doctor, Abeer was taken off the eye drop and asked to go back to her previous medications prescribed by KKESH. Shortly after, her sight had began to deteriorate and nearly disappeared. This was following the doctor giving her a new medication then asking her to go back to the old medications. Abeer tried to get an appointment with an eye specialist at one of the best eye hospitals in Texas but could not. She returned to the same eye specialist who appeared to be visibly nervous and worried about her condition. She asked Abeer to use the eye drops again but this time tapered off the dosage and prescribed cortisone eye drops. Abeer's sight did not improve; on the contrary, the pain had become intolerable. She called the doctor and was advised to stop taking all eye drops. Abeer's case had worsened and she had to see the doctor again but the hospital would not let her do so under the pretext that the doctor was too busy to give an immediate appointment. Abeer headed off to the Saudi health attaché and asked officials to provide her with travel tickets to return to the Kingdom in order to see KKESH doctors. When she arrived to the hospital in Riyadh, she was told by doctors that all the medications prescribed by the American doctor had worsened her case. Doctors also said that a layer of bacteria was formed inside her cornea in addition to a scar because of American doctor's negligence and medical error. “Although my sight has improved since I came here, I've lost a great deal of my vision. Medically speaking, I'm blind and need surgical intervention to repair the retina and cornea.” Abeer sent a complaint to the Saudi cultural attaché, Dr. Muhammad Al-Issa, requesting that the clinic pay her compensation for her eye sight impairment. Dr. Al-Issa said that the complaint would be sent to the Saudi Embassy and a lawyer would be appointed to file a lawsuit against the clinic and the doctor. The secretary general of Ebsar Foundation, Muhammad Balo, said his foundation offered Abeer a job. “This is a temporary job which will help her provide for herself until she returns to the US to finish her postgraduate studies as a blind person.”
