JEDDAH, 30 October 2003 — A nurse at Jeddah National Hospital suffered third degree burns to 64 percent of her body during a reported suicide attempt in the hospital’s operating theater earlier this week.

Dr. Salahuddin Moftah, the medical director of the hospital, told Arab News: “This woman has destroyed our operating theater and cost the hospital a great deal of money. Nurse Tilaka obtained a box of matches from a fellow nurse and proceeded to the operating theater, where she locked herself in. She prepared 12 vials of Epinephrine to inject into herself, then turned on the oxygen canisters, releasing oxygen into the room. She then dowsed herself with medical alcohol and set herself on fire.

“I presume that the pain was so great that she was unable to inject herself with the Epinephrine, which would have surely killed her. When hospital staff heard her screams and saw the smoke, they managed to break down the door and douse the flames. When the Civil Defense arrived, they secured the operating room. The matter is now under investigation by the police.”

Arab News, however, received an e-mail from staff members at Jeddah National Hospital contesting the facts as presented by the medical director. The e-mail said, “the hospital is covering up the case and is blaming the poor woman alone. Nurse Tilaka did not come to Saudi Arabia to commit suicide. This case is an accident. For your information, Tilaka is supporting a family of five in Sri Lanka. Hospital management is ill-treating the few Sri Lankan women working there. Tilaka has been working 12 long hours or more, everyday, seven days a week for the last 18 months.”

A nurse at the hospital, who asked that she not be identified, told Arab News: “Nurse Tilaka had access to all kinds of lethal medications. If she wanted to commit suicide, why would she choose to burn to death? She must have known the pain involved. She could have easily overdosed on something instead.”

Arab News spoke with the male co-worker after the relationship was discovered by hospital administration. He denied being anything more than friends with Tilaka. He told Arab News: “Tilaka and I were just friends. She was being threatened by her ex-husband and that made her depressed. I think she was so depressed that she wanted to commit suicide.”

However, according to Dr. Moftah, the relationship between Tilaka and the male co-worker was common knowledge among nursing staff at the hospital.

Arab News spoke with Dr. Shawkat, the doctor in charge of Tilaka’s care at King Fahd Hospital. He said: “Medicines and blood we requested be provided by Jeddah National Hospital have not been delivered. Some of these medicines are not available at King Fahd Hospital and can be provided by Jeddah National Hospital. To date, we have not received anything from her hospital. The medication we did receive came by way of the Sri Lankan Consulate.”

Bennet Chandrasiri, the Labor Relations Officer at the Sri Lankan Consulate, told Arab News: “The medication requested by King Fahd Hospital was provided by our consulate. I cannot comment on whether this was suicide or an accident as nobody knows. She was apparently alone at the time of the incident.”

Dr. Moftah said: “We have provided King Fahd Hospital with everything they need to care for Tilaka. In fact, three of our nurses who are blood type B+ have visited King Fahd Hospital and donated blood.”

When asked for inventory control sheets to prove that the medication was in fact delivered to King Fahd Hospital, Dr. Moftah could not provide them. When asked if he himself as the hospital’s medical director had been to visit Tilaka, he said he had not, but assured Arab News that her fellow nurses had, along with other senior hospital officials.

“Tilaka has only a 25 percent chance of surviving this ordeal. She has been on and off the ventilator and has not regained consciousness since the date of the accident. She is not expected to survive,” Dr. Shawkat told Arab News.