Fatima Muhammad Saudi Gazette JEDDAH — A mother has been reportedly forced out of a hospital dormitory where she had been living with her paralyzed child after she filed a complaint against the hospital to the Ministry of Health following medical malpractice. Some four months back, a medical committee at the Ministry of Health found the hospital guilty and asked it to pay compensation of SR2.4 million, according to documents seen by Saudi Gazette. The hospital was also asked to pay SR100,000 public rights compensation as it violated the ministry's regulations. The mother Halima, a Ethiopian national who used to live in Makkah, told Saudi Gazette that her child underwent a tonsillectomy in 2006. The child went into a coma after the surgery which also left him paralyzed. Halima moved to Jeddah and remained in the hospital beside her child, Muhammad, hoping he would recover one day, or that the hospital would provide the needed treatment. “My child has been in the bed for nine years now. The hospital has neglected him. No doctor comes to check him. The director comes only to ask me to leave the hospital along with the child. I had to fight for justice,” Halima told Saudi Gazette. Muhammad was four years of age when he underwent the routine surgical procedure to remove his tonsil. Two doctors examined him before surgery. But they left the Kingdom following the medical error. Halima lived for two years in a bed next to her child. Later she was shifted to a room in the nurses' dormitory from where she was forced out a few weeks ago. “At least 20 security guards of the hospital forced me out of the dorm,” she said. “How can they ask me to take the child in this condition outside the hospital. It is risky and inhuman. If the child stays without the machines plugged in, he will die.” According to official documents of the Ministry of Health, the hospital was found guilty not only of medical malpractice, but was also found to be committing various procedural wrongdoings. A committee from the ministry looked into the case in 2011 and issued its decision in April 2015, ordering a private right compensation worth SR2.4 million for the family of the patient, and a public right of SR100,000 for violating regulations of the Ministry of Health. However, the decision has not been accepted by the two parties. The mother demands that her child gets treated and that she gets an accommodation where she can live next to her child. Yalelet Getachew, Vice Consul at the Ethiopian Consulate General, said they are following up the case. When the consulate got the information that the mother has been forced out of the dorm they visited the hospital and talked to the administration and the board of directors. The representatives of the hospital told the consulate delegation that the child was only receiving nursery care which the mother can provide on her own. “This is impossible considering the critical condition of the child,” Getachew said, adding that they have filed a complaint with the authorities concerned.
