A specialist committee here has accused a surgeon at Najran General Hospital of making a mistake during a gall bladder operation on a woman, causing her death. However, authorities have shed only a little light on the matter. Saleh Aal Dhaibah, Director of Public Relations and spokesman of the Najran Directorate of Health Affairs, did not respond to numerous telephone calls seeking comment on the incident which took place seven months ago. Mani' Aal Abal Harith, Director of Followup in the region's Directorate of Health Affairs, refused to comment saying that regulations forbid him from speaking to the media. A member of the Medical Shariah Committee investigating the incident said the case has been referred to the Directorate of Health Affairs in the region by the Minister of Health and will be referred to the Shariah Commission in Asir because of its specialty. Turki Al-Anthari, the husband of the dead woman, said the Minister of Health issued directives in a letter No. 20784 dated 17/6/2010, to the Directorate of Health Affairs in the region to transfer the case to the Medical Shariah Commission in Asir. Al-Anthari claims this was in order to punish the hospital involved in the case. He said it was also proved that the hospital forged his dead wife's age. Al-Anthari said his wife Dalal was admitted to Najran General Hospital complaining of abdominal pain. The doctor removed her gallbladder, but her health deteriorated after the operation. “Two weeks after the operation, the doctor conducted an X-ray and it turned out that the tube in her abdomen was not working and the duct was blocked. She was then transferred to King Khaled Hospital in Najran where she underwent two ultrasounds, an MRI and catheterization operation that showed she had low blood pressure. She then slipped into a coma and was placed on a respirator.” Al-Anthari said that Dr. Muhammad Al-Qahtani, Consultant Surgeon on Liver and Gallbladder Ducts and Transplants at Asir Central Hospital, described the way the surgeon at Najran General Hospital operated on his wife as “medical messing around”. He claimed that Al-Qahtani said the surgeon caused poisoning, renal failure and coagulation of his wife's liver.
