JEDDAH: A five-year-old comatose boy who was stuck in a hospital in the southwestern city of Abha has been transferred to Riyadh Military Hospital after many attempts from his maternal uncles.
However, even after he was transferred, the hospital has put him under the supervision of the nurses in the emergency room with no doctors attending his case.
Nawaf Al-Shehri, 5, and his parents were involved in a car accident on Dec. 23 on the road between Al-Namas and Abha in Asir province. The boy’s mother died and his father sustained multiple injuries.
Arab News published the story on Feb. 5 regarding the maternal uncles’ problems with getting the boy transferred to Riyadh. For weeks they were traveling back and forth between centrally located Riyadh and Abha, in the southwestern part of the Kingdom. Eventually the transfer was authorized, but the boy is not receiving specialized care.
The father, who is out of the hospital in Abha, does not know his son’s exact condition because he is dealing with his own convalescence.
“He visited Nawaf once when he was in Abha. Now, he is planning to visit his son on Wednesday in the Riyadh hospital,” said Sultan Al-Shehri, Nawaf’s maternal uncle.
The uncles say they are having problems acquiring specialized care for Nawaf, who is in a semicomatose state where he becomes conscious from time to time.
The Riyadh Military Hospital told the family that they have no treatment for the child and they have put him in the emergency room.
“We have been going back and forth with Nawaf’s medical reports walking around from one hospital to another,” said Al-Shehri.
The family sent Nawaf’s medical reports to several local hospitals and also to a hospital in Malaysia. All responses have been that Nawaf needs specialized pediatric rehabilitative care. “The King Fahd Medical City has refused his case although they have a specialized children’s rehabilitation department,” Al-Shehri said.
However, after the family was able to get three royal orders to continue his treatment in the medical city, an order is being sought to check the boy for any damage to internal organs.
“We did the checkup on Nawaf and gave the report to the hospital. They told us to call on Saturday (Feb. 28), but we haven’t received a reply,” the uncle added.
