Umm Abdul Aziz lives in a state of anxiety and apprehension. For the past seven years, she has spent her days in the same way: visiting the hospital to check on the health of her son Abdul Aziz Mubarak Al-Ghamdi, 9, and caring for her family at home. Abdul Aziz has spent seven years in the Intensive Care Unit of King Abdullah Hospital in Bisha. During this time, he has become fluent in Arabic, English, Filipino and Urdu, as he used to talk to all the doctors and male and female nurses, but now he cannot utter a word in any language as his condition has worsened and he has lost the ability to speak. Recalling her son's tragedy, Umm Abdul Aziz said that her son was born in King Abdullah Hospital in sound health. However, when he reached three months of age, he rejected any kind of milk, so she took him to the hospital where the lady doctor, only identified as Fathia, told her that Abdul Aziz would not be able to walk or talk in the future. The mother said they took Abdul Aziz home where he lived a normal life. One day during a weekend, he suffered from a high temperature, so they took him to a hospital where the doctors decided to hospitalize him. Since that day, he has been in the ICU where he has learnt four languages. Umm Abdul Aziz said they tried to transfer him to specialist hospitals, but all their attempts were in vain despite their obtaining a transfer from the Royal Court for his treatment at King Fahd Armed Forces Hospital in Jeddah at the expense of the government. Mubarak Mu'nis Al-Ghamdi, the boy's father, who is suffering from a heart problem and is hospitalized in the same hospital, said Abdul Aziz was their youngest child but may leave the world before all unless he gets treatment in a specialist hospital within the Kingdom or abroad. He claimed that some interventions by doctors were the cause of the deterioration of his son's health and his admission in the ICU. After some time, Abdul Aziz lost the ability to speak whereas earlier he used to recognize everyone and speak and laugh with them. Al-Ghamdi is demanding the formation of a specialist medical committee to discuss his son's disease. Abdullah Sa'eed Al-Ghamdi, spokesperson of the Directorate of Health in Bisha, said the boy was brought to the hospital for the first time in March 2002. He was suffering from difficulty in breathing. He was examined and medical tests were conducted in coordination with King Faisal Specialist Hospital. His case was diagnosed as myopathy (a congenital neuromuscular disease in which the muscle fibers do not function for any one of many reasons, resulting in muscular weakness). He pointed out that at the request of the boy's parents, they approached King Faisal Specialist Hospital, King Fahd Medical City, King Saud Complex, King Khalid University Hospital and Asir Central Hospital. The last named hospital accepted Abdul Aziz's case and then he returned to King Abdullah Hospital in Bisha in the same condition four months later. Abdullah Al-Ghamdi denied any shortcoming or negligence by the doctors or the hospital as a whole despite the discontent expressed by the boy's family with the hospital and its doctors. Al-Ghamdi confirmed the existence of a Royal Order for the boy's treatment in King Fahd Armed Forces Hospital in Jeddah, but the patient has not been accepted by that hospital. He expressed the readiness of the hospital administration to receive any complaint and verify it on the basis of the boy's file.
