JEDDAH, 4 September 2005 — Thousands of children are born every month across Saudi Arabia without complications, but an Indonesian man has called for an investigation into his wife’s death after her transfer to a public hospital while she was in critical condition in a private hospital apparently more interested in profit than in medicine.
Widower Marzuki Sirigar filed a complaint with Riyadh Governor Prince Salman. And the governor’s office has instructed the Health Ministry to conduct an investigation into the death of Enol Mardiyah, whose body remained unburied for some time while hospital officials refused to conduct an autopsy.
The story began four months ago when Sirigar took his wife to the private medical clinic where she had been a patient to deliver her baby. The doctor examined Mardiyah at 8:30 a.m. and told the couple that she was not dilated enough and needed to walk around the clinic to help her. At noon she was admitted to the delivery room as she was having contractions and bleeding, but the doctor could not deliver the baby. At 6:30 p.m., the clinic transferred her to a private hospital where she was admitted to the operating room but not before the hospital manager negotiated the fees.
Sirigar agreed to pay SR4,050 — SR1,050 as downpayment and SR3,000 after the delivery — in addition to any medical charges.
Mardiyah gave birth to a baby girl by cesarean section, but her condition was bad, and she was bleeding severely.
The doctor said that she needed to have her uterus removed to save her life, and Sirigar agreed to the procedure. She stayed at the private hospital for two days after the surgery, but she continued bleeding.
The hospital manager ordered Sirigar to transfer his wife to another hospital because they did not have enough blood to give her or the capacity to take care of her unless he paid SR30,000. Sirigar refused to transfer her because he had already paid the previous full amount asked of him and he did not have any more money to pay even after the manager reduced the fee to SR10,000.
After 30 minutes of haggling and without Sirigar’s consent, the critically ill woman was transferred to a public hospital where she died after seven hours of emergency care.
According to the report by the Eman General Hospital where Mardiyah was transferred, the patient came without prior arrangement to the emergency room from the private hospital after having her uterus removed, and she was in critical condition. “She was almost unconscious and bleeding from different areas (nose, ears and under the skin where intravenous injections had been administered), and she was examined by the emergency doctor, the hematology consultant, gynecology consultant and others,” said the hospital report.
She had blood clotting in several veins, liver and kidney failure and other problems and was provided with the appropriate medical care, according to the report. The hospital faxed the report to the Health Ministry because it did not have a bed in the intensive care unit for her.
Her condition continued deteriorating, her heart stopped and she was resuscitated at the ER and given oxygen but her heart stopped a second and third time. She died at 2:30 a.m.
“She was at the emergency room for seven hours in terrible condition, and I kept crying and pleading for them to take care of her, but they kept ignoring me. I was very angry when she died and I asked that they do an autopsy to know the cause of death but they refused and said she didn’t need an autopsy because she did not die in a crime,” Sirigar told Arab News.
He refused to take the body until an autopsy was done, but they refused to perform an autopsy. After a few days, she was transferred to the Shumaisi Hospital morgue where she remained for a whole month while he kept demanding an autopsy to know the cause of death. Eventually, he gave up and brought a letter from his embassy and the municipality allowing him to take his wife’s body and bury her. He also filed a complaint with the governor’s office which directed the Health Department to investigate.
Sirigar now plans to leave Saudi Arabia and return home with a shattered dream, an infant child and bitter memories. “I just want to know how she died so that I can put this behind me and take my daughter back home to our village because I cannot take care of her alone while I’m working,” he said.
