In one of a number of probes into deaths at city hospitals, a Shariah medical committee is investigating the circumstances around the death of a man who died because of alleged medical malpractice at a government hospital. The case filed against the Ministry of Health by the deceased's sister, who is a doctor, claimed that the man died of stroke complications that doctors failed to recognize. The doctors had therefore not taken “appropriate actions” to save him. The hospital was accused of delaying treatment for an emergency case. The hospital allegedly kept transferring the patient, who was in a critical condition, to three separate specialists. The man eventually died on his hospital bed. “The specialists ended up blaming each other for his death,” the sister said. Hospital sources said that the three specialists will be summoned for questioning by the Shariah medical committee at its next hearing. The committee will consist of a senior judge and consultants from the Ministry of Health and King Abdulaziz University. Meanwhile, the committee has also charged three doctors at another government hospital in Jeddah with “delay in attending to an emergency case” which led to the death of a woman in the emergency room (ER). The committee fined the doctors SR30,000 each for the public right. The deceased woman's family did not file a lawsuit case against the doctors, which saved the doctors further punishment. The committee also recommended the installation of better equipment and blood bank at the ER where the woman died. Another pregnant woman died of alleged medical negligence at the ER of a government hospital in Jeddah. The woman was admitted to the ER following chest pain from pneumonia, but the ER doctor refused to examine her, allegedly saying that she needed a gynecologist to attend to her case. Although the woman's family dropped the case against the doctor, the Prosecutor General has filed a case against the hospital, accusing it of negligence and calling for the staff to be punished. An investigation into the case is still pending with the medical committee.
