JEDDAH, 23 November 2005 — A seven-year-old boy, who was hit by a car yesterday morning, breaking his leg, was denied medical assistance at the nearest clinic.
According to eyewitnesses, the accident occurred at about 11 a.m. in Al-Naseem district. As the boy was leaving school, a speeding car hit him. The driver stopped and, with the help of a bystander, took the child to the nearest primary care clinic — Al-Tuwaim Clinic.
“We had to do something because when I called the Red Crescent, they said that it was the clinic’s responsibility to send an ambulance and transfer the patient to a hospital as needed but no ambulance came,” explained Sulaiman, the bystander who helped the driver.
At the clinic, with the child crying in pain and concerned bystanders asking for immediate help, the receptionist and nurses stood helpless since no doctor was present and they had no idea what to do.
“They were completely ignorant of first aid and did not have anything to treat fractures or even an appropriate stretcher to stabilize the leg,” said Sulaiman.
After 15 minutes of indecision and no action, the concerned citizens decided to take the child to the nearest hospital which is the University Hospital. To their surprise and shock, however, the clinic’s ambulance driver was not present and when one of the men present offered to drive it, he was told the vehicle was out of service.
The driver of the car which had hit the boy then carried him to the University Hospital with the full knowledge and awareness of a policeman who was on the scene but who neither called an ambulance or filed a report.
The witnesses decided to make a complaint to the general director of health affairs in Makkah region, and forwarded a copy to Arab News.
“The issue here is lack of basic medical services at these primary care clinics. There should be more supervision and qualified staff,” said Sulaiman, one of the signers of the complaint.
Arab News contacted the owner of the clinic, Saleh Al-Tuwaim, who said that the claim was wrong.
“We are fully equipped and licensed to provide primary care. The ambulance is new and licensed and works fine. It’s true that the driver was temporarily out and had the key with him but the ambulance works fine,” he said.
“These people came in, yelling and causing a commotion. A doctor did see the boy but said that there was nothing he could do because the boy might have internal bleeding and the clinic was not equipped to deal with that. He urged them to take the boy to a hospital quickly where he could receive appropriate care but they wouldn’t listen,” he said.
The doctor wrote a report on what had happened.
According to unconfirmed reports, the boy did not receive the necessary treatment at the University Hospital; he was finally taken to King Fahd Hospital where he was treated.
