MADINAH, 8 June 2008 — A 45-day-old infant died in Madinah’s Maternity and Children’s Hospital after 25 days in coma due to a mistake during gastrointestinal surgery, Al-Madinah daily reported yesterday. The child’s father reportedly intends to sue the hospital for malpractice. He claims that the doctors refused the father’s request to transfer the newborn to the better-equipped Military Hospital in Riyadh due to the hospital’s bureaucracy.
Mother Refuses to Accept Newborn
ALKHOBAR, 8 June 2008 — A Saudi woman in her 20s walked away from a hospital hours after giving birth, refusing to take the child, the daily Al-Watan reported yesterday. The woman gave birth at around 6 a.m. on Saturday at Aston Hospital in Dammam. At around 4 p.m. she left the hospital without her child. When a hospital worker called her, she told them to contact her father, as he should be the one to pick up the child. The nature of the dispute is unknown. The report did not say who retrieved the child, if anyone.
Woman Killed in Makkah Accident
MAKKAH, 8 June 2008 — A newly wed 24-year-old Pakistani woman who was performing Umrah died when she and her husband took a shortcut through one of the many construction sites around the Grand Mosque, Al-Watan daily reported yesterday. A piece of concrete debris struck the woman down. She was dead before reaching hospital.
