MAKKAH, 12 August 2003 — The family of a pregnant woman who died as a result of internal bleeding after a car accident are threatening to sue a government hospital, Al-Madinah reported. The husband delivered his wife to the emergency room following the accident, where she received no immediate attention despite being in pain and bleeding internally.
“After four long hours of pain and waiting, I finally carried her upstairs to the operation room because the elevators were not working,” Ali Al-Zahrani, the husband, told the paper. When he got there, the operation room was not ready. “I thought the doctors were finally going to take care of her. I went home to get some rest, and after an hour I got a call from the hospital telling me that the fetus was dead.
“Soon after that, they called me again to tell me that my wife was dead too,” he added. He did not explain why he remained at home following the first call.
Her brother said he was shocked at the doctors’ behavior. “Why did they refuse to help my sister? They are responsible for her death, and I want the Ministry of Health to investigate the hospital,” he said. The hospital director, Othman Maymani, told Al-Madinah there would be a full investigation and those responsible would be punished.
