JEDDAH, 3 October 2003 — The New Jeddah Clinic Hospital has given its version of the events which led to the ejection of a terminally-ill AIDS patient from its care. In the much-publicized case, the hospital has been under investigation for using its security personnel to transport the dying AIDS patient in a pickup truck to his employer’s offices on Palestine Street. There, he was left on the pavement behind the building in the afternoon heat barely conscious and unable to fend for himself.

During his violent ejection from the pickup truck, he suffered scratches and bruising to the right side of his face and hands. The patient, 57-year-old Abdul Rahim Mahmood, was subsequently transferred by his employer, Rajab and Silsilah, to King Saud Hospital, where he died three weeks later.

But in a statement to Okaz newspaper, the New Jeddah Clinic Hospital said it gave sufficient notice for Rajab and Silsilah to collect the patient as the hospital was not specialized in caring for victims of AIDS.

However, Arab News has seen a letter from Rajab and Silsilah asking the New Jeddah Clinic Hospital to be patient while arrangements were being made for the transfer of the patient, agreeing to pay for all costs incurred in the time the transfer took through other channels.

A senior administrator at Rajab and Silsilah told Arab News: “We didn’t know what to do with him. We couldn’t take him to his house because he was barely conscious and needed serious medical care. At the same time, the Red Crescent Society refused to transport him because they said they don’t transport AIDS patients. In our letter to the New Jeddah Clinic Hospital, we indicated that we would cover all expenses related to his care. The responsible and humane thing to have done would have been for the hospital to arrange for his transfer to the other hospital by a more acceptable mode of transport than by pickup truck.”

The New Jeddah Clinic Hospital claims that it was the hospital which had made arrangements for the patient to be admitted to King Saud Hospital, not the employer.

However, it did not say why, if it had in fact arranged to have Mahmood transferred, its security personnel transported him to his employer’s back door instead of directly to King Saud Hospital.

The New Jeddah Clinic Hospital also claims that the patient was handed over to personnel at Rajab and Silsilah and that it was they who threw him out onto the street.

During Arab News’ investigation of the incident, the security guard on duty at Rajab and Silsilah that day said: “I was sitting at my station when I was approached by someone who said there was a very sick man bruised and bleeding at the back door. When I went to check, there he was lying unresponsive in the heat. Someone brought him a mattress and some water, but he was unable to even drink it unassisted.”

The senior administrator at Rajab and Silsilah said: “We considered Mahmood a member of our family as he has been our tea boy for over a decade. It is disgusting that he was treated like an animal.”

But the New Jeddah Clinic Hospital claims that this was a setup by Rajab and Silsilah to tarnish the New Jeddah Clinic Hospital’s reputation and to avoid paying the hospital bill. The incident is still under investigation by the health authorities.