WHAT is going on in hospitals run by the Ministry of Health? Why do we recover from the trauma of one gross medical mistake only to be shocked by a more fatal one? The tragedy of Reham, the little girl who was given blood tainted with HIV in a Jazan hospital is still vivid in our memories. Reham has now entered into the dilemma of attending court hearings. She had to wait long hours for sessions at the Court of Grievances, which usually take forever to conclude. Instead of compensating her and taking care of her for life, the ministry hired a lawyer to make her life hell. The ministry has every right to defend itself and its staff but it should look at the spirit of the law rather than its text. While we are waiting to hear some good news about judgment in favor of Reham, we were shocked by the story of Rawiyah, a infant girl who lost her life in a hospital in Al-Majardah because of power failure. Miman, a four-year old girl, was paralyzed because of a medical mistake in a hospital in Madinah. Before we could hardly overcome the tragedy of Miman we were traumatized by the shocking news about Rama, a five-year-old girl who went to a hospital suffering from slight fever only to find herself being treated at an oncology center in Buraidah. Rama was the victim of the ugliest medical mistake that could ever happen. The doctor who was treating her exchanged her blood samples with that of a 15-year-old boy named Rami who had cancer. Because the "a" in Rama's name was mistaken for an "i" in Rami's name, she had to undergo chemotherapy. What is happening in the Health Ministry? We no longer accept the ministry's justifications for the deteriorating medical services in a particular hospital or in a certain region. The statements of the ministry's officials are no longer convincing. The same medical errors happen now and again in Jazan, Al-Majardah, Madinah, Qassim, Jeddah and other towns and cities. We should therefore come to the conclusion that the problem lies in the ministry itself and it should find a solution to these problems. The ministry should be transparent and come out to say openly that it has issues. All these cases that I spoke about happened within a span of one month. The ministry has either to reassure us about the lives of our children or we will come up with a solution ourselves. We will tell the ministry bluntly that "we will stop making babies from now on. Look for other children to practice your mistakes on!"
