Negligence of rescue team blamed for student’s death

JEDDAH, 21 November 2002 — A Saudi woman doctor alleged that gross negligence by paramedics serving in a Red Crescent team led to the death of a secondary school student following a traffic accident in Madinah last week, a newspaper reported yesterday.

M. Fullata was on his way to school when a speeding car knocked him down, causing him serious head injuries, Al-Watan daily quoted the doctor as saying.

The doctor, a consultant of family medicine and also an accredited expert on cardiac first aid, was present at the accident site. She accused that the rescue team came very late to the scene, while the way they handled the accident victim was totally wrong and betrayed their lack of proper training.

They rushed the boy to hospital without giving proper support to his back, she said, adding that it is vital that a victim of such accident be moved with full care and protection should be given to the cervical vertebrae for possible fractures.

Any negligence in this matter would prove fatal, said the doctor, who preferred to remain anonymous.

She also blamed the paramedics that they did not put the oxygen mask on his face after he was taken inside the ambulance. She said this was a serious omission that would surely lead to a cardiac arrest in such critical conditions.

The doctor stressed the importance of giving advanced training to the paramedics working in ambulances in order that their ignorance did not defeat the very purpose of rescue operations.

However, Saad ibn Mahna Al-Sowaid, director general of the Red Crescent’s main branch in Madinah, refuted the claim that the rescue team arrived late at the accident scene.

"In fact the ambulance took only five minutes to reach the spot after receiving a call at the control room," Al-Sowaid said. He pointed out that a rescue team could be sent only after they get a call for help.

"How can we know that an accident has taken place without somebody telling us?" he asked.

But the school principal said the ambulance came only quarter of an hour after the accident was reported to the Red Crescent.