MAKKAH, 22 September 2007 — Due to an alleged lack of supervision by the Ministry of Health, medical mistakes in the Kingdom’s hospitals continue to claim the lives of people. Arab News met Muhammad, a 42-year-old Saudi citizen whose quest for proper medical care took him across the Middle East and beyond to the UK.
Muhammad is married and has two children. For a long time he suffered severe back pain that prevented him from walking and so went to a well-known hospital in Jeddah to consult a Saudi bone specialist.
“The doctor said he wanted an x-ray and carried out some clinical examinations. He told me that I was suffering from inflammation at the end of my back in the coccyx (the tailbone or the final segment of the human vertebral column),” said Muhammad, who was advised to take tranquilizers to make him feel better.
“The tranquilizers reduced the pain for a while but it soon came back,” he said, adding that he went to another private hospital and consulted an Egyptian physician, who concurred with the previous doctor’s diagnosis after carrying out x-rays himself.
Unsatisfied with the treatment he received, Muhammad went to a hospital in Beirut where a bone doctor told him that he needed to exercise his coccyx bone. On returning to Jeddah, a fourth doctor told him that the pain he was suffering was the result of cramp in his muscles due to the exercise that he was doing.
Muhammad then consulted a Saudi neurosurgeon, who asked him to undergo a scan. The doctor also advised him to undergo physiotherapy.
Not seeing a difference, Muhammad went to an Egyptian physician, who told him not to think a lot because that was affecting his nerves and causing him pain. He also advised him to take some depression tablets.
Muhammad then went to another Saudi physician at Al-Badria Medical Towers. The physician advised him to visit a neurologist because he could not work out what was wrong.
The 42-year-old continued visiting doctor after doctor. He even went to a bone consultant in Egypt, who told him that he was suffering from inflammation in the sciatic nerve and that this was what was hurting him. He advised him to take some strong tranquilizers.
Muhammad said, “I followed lots of doctors’ prescriptions, but the pain continued to increase. The financial losses were increasing too.”
Finally Muhammad decided to go to Britain to consult a specialist physician identified only as Dr. James, who after examining him told him that there was a tumor in his back that needed to be removed.
“He told me that he was going to carry out surgery. He told me that he wouldn’t go ahead if I were unsure about it. He said his main concern was to make sure I was satisfied with the treatment,” said Muhammad, adding that he underwent the surgery.
“After the operation the doctor ordered that I undergo another brain and neck scan to make sure everything was OK. He gave me some medication and asked me to visit him again after eight months,” Muhammad said.
“Dr. James said that if he cannot properly diagnose a case then he takes help from his colleagues. He told me that sharing experience with other doctors benefits him and his patients. Moreover, in Britain doctors are punished severely for medical mistakes,” he said.
Muhammad urged physicians in Saudi Arabia to fear God and respect their medical oaths.
“You are dealing with the flesh and blood of human beings. I spent SR20,000 on treatment in Britain. I wish I had spent this money in Saudi Arabia. This would have made me proud,” he said.
