Makkah Health Affairs is investigating a Saudi doctor and a female nurse of Arab nationality after a 14-year-old boy was left with a paralyzed hand and serious disfiguration to his arm after being injected, according to his father, in a vein instead of an artery. The father of Muhammad Al-Hidhli said he had taken his son to Al-Nour Specialist Hospital at King Abdullah Medical City with a high temperature and that he was immediately placed in a ward for dengue fever and swine flu patients. “Not only that, but the nurse then injected him in a vein instead of the artery, and that caused the disfigurations to his arms and his nerves to stop functioning,” said Mahanna Al-Hidhli. A complaint lodged with the regional Emir's Office led to a travel ban being placed on the nurse and opening of an investigation into her conduct and that of the doctor. During its first hearing into the case, however, the Shariah Medical Committee was surprised to learn that photographs displaying the extent of the patient's wounds that were submitted with the original complaint had disappeared, and that the nurse who was under a travel ban had managed to leave the country before the investigation was complete. Dr. Awwadh Al-Bashari, the acting medical director of Al-Nour Hospital, denied that the patient's wounds were related to medical error. “This was not caused by medical error,” Al-Bashari said. “The symptoms are natural and the complications were beyond our control”. The next hearing into the case is scheduled for May 30.
