RIYADH, 14 July 2006 — Health authorities in the Al-Bukaireya province in Qasim refused to accept responsibility for the death of a Saudi woman who died one month after having given birth through cesarean.
Muhammad Al-Tuaimi of the Health Department said that the hospital that the woman was admitted to provided her all the necessary care she needed and that her medical report was sent to six other hospitals which said that they could not provide the woman with any more care than what was already given. Dr. Abdullah Al-Sugail of Health Department in Qasim, however, said that the case of the dead woman was transferred to the medical committee for investigation. The result of this investigation will be announced as soon as it is done.
Al-Tuaimi explained that the woman was admitted to the Al-Bukaireya General Hospital after going into labor and that the medical team took necessary steps in ensuring a safe and successful delivery. It was then that doctors decided to perform a cesarean operation.
Al-Tuaimi said that after the operation the woman was taken to her room accompanied by her mother. He said that the woman spoke to her mother who congratulated her and that the woman even made a phone call to her husband telling him the good news. According to Al-Tuaimi it was then that the woman suddenly began feeling pain in her chest and had trouble breathing, which caused her heart to stop. Hospital doctors managed to restart her heartbeat and the woman was then transferred to the Intensive Care Unit where she stayed until her death.
Al-Tuaimi explained that the hospital contacted the King Fahd Hospital in Buraidah to undertake some X-ray tests and that her case was also shown to a brain specialist in the hospital, who followed correct procedures in giving her proper treatment. Meanwhile, the husband of the woman expressed surprise at what Al-Tuaimi had said. He said that when his wife was taken to hospital he asked doctors to carry out tests before going through with the delivery. The husband said that the doctors insisted that the woman be taken to the delivery room where she stayed for more than 15 hours before a cesarean operation was performed.
“I arrived to the hospital to sign the necessary papers for the operation. I stayed there until my wife left the operation room. I am very surprised to hear the hospital say that my wife called me. How could she call me when I was sitting next to her and she was lying unconscious?” said the husband.
“My wife was kept in the observation room only for 15 minutes after the operation. The hospital has been negligent. The hospital did not even try transferring my wife to the King Fahd Hospital for tests. I only managed to do that through my connections. She wasn’t even taken to a brain specialist; she was only there for a test and came back to hospital straight away,” he said. The mother of the woman also denied that her daughter made a telephone call and called upon the health authorities to investigate the incident.
