However, some of his friends developed some sort of grudge against him. His early retirement and enjoyment of life with family members had become the focal point of gossip at rest houses and other rendezvous. They were jealous at the very thought that he had become the luckiest man in the world by getting an early retirement. Most of them were still clinging to their jobs even after having served more than 30 years, the period of my friend’s service.

Their attitude ended up in their colleague becoming a victim of envy and evil eye, against which the Prophet (peace be upon him) warned us. But this is not the actual issue I want to share with the readers. The important thing is that this friend of mine, one day, had a pain in the lower part of his stomach. He approached a nearby private hospital where he underwent a thorough medical checkup. After this, doctors told him that he was suffering from a light hernia and that he should undergo a small surgery costing SR3,000. He agreed and the surgery was done.

After spending three days in hospital, the consultant surgeon discharged him. In order to complete discharge procedures, he approached the employee at the reception counter to settle the bill. As per the agreement reached earlier with the hospital authorities, he took out SR3,000 from his pocket, but the employee did not accept it saying he needed to pay SR10,000 because the tumor that was removed was malignant.

This information struck my friend like lightning; he fainted and collapsed onto a nearby sofa. When he recovered consciousness, he contacted one of his friends and recounted to him what had happened. That friend rushed to the hospital and tried to pacify him. After completing discharge procedures, the friend took him home. That time, the staff at the reception kept gazing at them as if nothing had happened.

My friend never recovered from the shock and he eventually died. But what remains is this attitude of some hospital employees in handling highly sensitive cases. Such incidents are still happening on a daily basis at some of our hospitals.

Hence, I want to make an appeal in a much louder voice to our humane Health Minister Dr. Abdullah Al-Rabeeah to make an urgent intervention to stop such unhealthy practices. The minister should issue directives to all government hospitals asking them to constitute specialized committees, comprising doctors, psychologists, sociologists and prominent figures in society, to inform those who are terminally ill about their disease in a gentle and civilized manner that would not have a negative impact on their lives. Specialized committees must also be constituted in private hospitals to avoid recurrence of such tragedies.