year-old Majed Basaeed, who has been pronounced brain dead by doctors after he nearly drowned in a swimming pool during a school trip to King Fahd Coastal City on April 10, has said he will take a decision “soon” on the fate of his son. “The medical team has said I have a number of choices, from disconnecting Majed from the equipment that's keeping him alive, to looking for help abroad, or leaving him connected as he is,” said Mudrik Basaeed Sunday. “We still have hope in our hearts, and the thought of disconnecting him is a difficult one to bear, as I can see him breathing, and I have great hope in Allah and I don't want to lose hope,” he said. Majed reportedly lay at the bottom of the pool for 20 minutes before he was rescued by fellow pupils who said later that the lifeguard at the site failed to hear their cries for help because he was “busy talking on the telephone”. They added that the First Aid room at the Coastal City refused to attend to Majed on the pretext that he required “urgent hospital attention” before he was taken by ambulance to hospital where doctors said that 45 minutes had elapsed between the boy's removal from the pool and his arrival. His father has since been told by doctors that his brain death “could have been avoided”. “Dr. Khaled Alim, the deputy manager of the International Medical Center, said a deterioration in Majed's condition could have been avoided if he had been given mouth-to-mouth resuscitation within five or ten minutes of being rescued,” he said. According to Dr. Alim, examinations on Majed revealed no signs of brain activity and that no blood supply was reaching his brain. “Majed has been taken off artificial respiration and is being given a supply of pure oxygen. Breathing and blood tests have shown high levels of carbon dioxide in the blood and a lack of automatic respiration, meaning that he is unable to breathe independently,” Dr. Alim said. Saudi Gazette reported on April 14 that Jeddah's Education Department had begun investigating how Majed, one of 41 pupils on the Al-Falah School day trip, was allowed to enter the swimming pool unattended. Primary concerns revolved around the lifeguard at the swimming pool who Civil Defense officials said did not possess the required certificates or qualifications for the position in which he was employed but was instead registered as an electrician by profession. Criticisms were also directed at the number of teachers tasked with supervising the children, to which the school's educational supervisor Abdul Rahman Al-Salami responded by saying that “all the necessary measures were taken prior to the trip, and three teachers were charged with the pupils' care, but one of them had another appointment and was due to join up with the others shortly after”. Majed's father also said he had not been asked to sign any permission paper for his son to go on the trip, but Al-Salami said he was aware of the trip. “He provided his son with a bathing costume and expenses,” Al-Salami said. The Education Department put an immediate halt to all school trips to amusement and leisure parks on Sunday after the incident, in which Majed, said to be a non-swimmer, reportedly lay at the bottom of the pool for 20 minutes before he was rescued by fellow pupils. A statement from the Education Department said that any failures observed would be “severely punished”.
