Health Affairs are investigating accusations that failures by staff at a government-run hospital in Jeddah led to the death of a seven-year-old boy. Muhammad Aiyed Al-Samadani said his son Sa'ad had a temperature and stomach ache when he took him to King Abdulaziz University Hospital, and claims that a failure to properly diagnose his condition led to seizures and finally the boy's death 24 hours later. The death certificate records a death due to toxemia, or blood poisoning. According to Dr. Iyman Jafar, Administrative Director of King Abdulaziz University Hospital, Sa'ad suffered from atrophy – a complete or partial wasting of the muscle- in the cerebellum, which, he says, is a congenital brain disease with which Sa'ad was born. “The doctors did their best to give him all the care he needed,” Jafar said, “which is shown by the fact that Sa'ad's father at first refused to admit him to hospital, but it was only on the doctors' insistence that he eventually agreed.” Jafar said that doctors attempted to drain fluid from the affected part of the brain, but were unable to prevent Sa'ad's death. Health Affairs have now set up a medical committee to look into the case.
