JEDDAH, 20 April 2003 — A legal committee specializing in medical affairs will look into a lawsuit filed by a Saudi citizen against three doctors at a public hospital in Jeddah, Al-Watan newspaper reported yesterday. The Saudi has accused the hospital of negligence, resulting in the death of his 47-year-old sister.
He said that his sister was admitted to the hospital after complaining of minor heart complications. The hospital advised the brother to buy some prescribed medication at his own cost, and it was only after the sister took it that her condition became so bad that the doctors said they would have to perform heart surgery. During the operation the woman’s condition deteriorated and a specialist heart surgeon was asked to take over the operation. However, he was busy with another patient and said he would be free only four hours later.
When the woman’s heart stopped beating, the medical team tried to revive her manually, the brother says and they did not use any medical equipment. The doctors then asked him to transfer the patient to the military hospital, where they said there was another heart specialist. However, the man’s sister was pronounced dead on arrival.
