Medical errors have become so common these days that people hardly say a word when told about one. If a doctor incorrectly diagnoses an illness or prescribes the wrong medication, the mistake is considered “routine.”
If a doctor fails to deal properly with symptoms, allowing them to degenerate into a serious illness, the matter is again treated as something normal. Why worry? Doctors are only human and can err like anybody else.
This may be the case, but when it comes to hospitals committing serious blunders that amount to crimes in the eyes of the law, then something must be done. Such cases should never be treated as medical errors or as something only related to medical matters. A crime is a crime and must be treated as such.
The case of a Jordanian woman who was admitted to a private hospital in Riyadh to have her baby only to be told the child had died and the body was missing should never fall in the category of routine medical mistakes.
The Jordanian woman was already the mother of six girls and was expecting a boy, the first ever in the family. She went into the hospital for what the family thought was a normal delivery. Medical records showed the mother and unborn child in good health.
The parents received their first shock when doctors told them the child had died before birth. They were shocked and saddened but had enough courage to accept the will of God. When the father brought the official papers to bury the child, he was told by the hospital to wait another 24 hours and the body would be delivered to him. A day later, the father was told the child’s body was missing and the hospital could not find it.
How could something like this happen? Who was responsible for the body’s disappearance? These and many other questions remain unanswered. The family filed complaints with the authorities, hoping to learn the fate of the child they had never seen.
So far, there have been no results. The shocked mother is still hoping that the child may have been kidnapped, is alive somewhere and that one day she will be reunited with him. Sadly, a mother never gives up hope.
The story is beyond all comprehension, but all the documents show that every detail I have related is true.
Where is the body of the child? What happened to it and who is to blame for the tragedy? Who are the authorities who should consider the case? The parents say they raised the matter with the police and the Ministry of Health but have received no answer.
