Khalid Al-Balahdi Okaz/Saudi Gazette DAMMAM — A father has alleged that King Fahd Teaching Hospital (KFTH) in Al-Khobar made a grave medical error that led to the removal of his four-year-old child's left testicle. In his complaint to the Ministry of Health, the citizen claimed the medical error was caused by KFTH's emergency unit. Abdul Rahman Al-Shamrani said his son Wesam had inflammation and a severe infection in his left testicle. He took him to the emergency unit where the supervising doctor examined the child and decided there was nothing to worry about. The doctor prescribed Wesam an ointment and discharged him. Two days later, Wesam's condition deteriorated as the affected testicle became more inflamed and the child started to cry from pain. The father took his son again to the same hospital where a specialist surgeon examined Wesam again. This time an ultrasound was ordered. The father said after five hours the surgeon confirmed that the results came out fine and Wesam did not have anything to worry about. The doctor discharged Wesam after prescribing him an analgesic and ointment. Al-Shamrani said he did not feel comfortable with the doctor's diagnosis and decided to take his son to a private hospital. After a pediatric specialist surgeon saw Wesam, he urged the family to admit their son to the hospital as the affected testicle would need removal. However, Wesam's father took his son again to KFTH's emergency unit, five days after the last visit. A urologist examined the child and confirmed an urgent operation should be performed to remove the left testicle. In his complaint, Al-Shamrani said: “When I brought my son the first two times, he was prescribed ointment and analgesics. “They misdiagnosed his condition. This is complete negligence. My son lost his testicle because of the doctor's carelessness and negligence.” Wesam's father had been following up his son's case with authorities in Al-Khobar. He called for an investigation into the case and to hold the doctors responsible for the mistake and misdiagnosis. He said he learned that one of the medical sheets that doctors used to write Wesam's diagnosis went missing and it was no longer in the emergency unit's archives. He said: “I don't understand why of all sheets this one was not there. Someone must've done this on purpose in order to stall the case.”
