Ibrahim Al-Anazi said his wife had to deliver her baby in the hospital’s hallway and that the hospital authorities humiliated him by refusing to accept his wife because there was no vacant bed.
Khaled bin Yousuf Seebeh, director of public relations at the Royal Commission, said the man’s wife, Amal, had been given all necessary medical care and advice by doctors and nurses at the hospital.
He said the female doctor on duty in the ER checked Amal when she arrived at the hospital at 8:19 p.m. on Oct. 17. The doctor had advised the woman to check the heartbeat of the baby and contractions but she left without conducting those tests.
“She left the hospital on her own. The doctor had advised her to come back when she feels labor pain,” the spokesman said.
He said Amal had previously delivered three babies at the hospital.
“The woman returned to the emergency room at 10:44 p.m. on the same day and was received immediately. Her admission was electronically recorded, which shows she was not rejected by the hospital as claimed by her husband,” the spokesman said.
The nurse in charge took the woman to the delivery room and contacted the doctor. But the doctor was busy with another case in the first floor of the hospital, the spokesman said. She informed the nurse that she would come soon to attend Amal.
“As the fetus was just 36 weeks old and did not complete its growth it required special care. The nurse in charge had asked the woman’s husband to contact the hospital’s administrative manager either to shift his wife to another hospital or take measures to allocate a bed for the baby in the intensive care unit,” Seebeh said.
He said the woman delivered her baby in the labor room at the hospital’s emergency section and the doctor in charge had given necessary care and treatment to the mother and baby. “The pediatrician also checked the baby and found it in good health and there were no complications,” he said, adding that the mother and the baby left hospital the next day in good health.
Al-Anazi said he would take legal action against the hospital for causing the death of his child. He also called for an investigation into the incident to find out the reason for his child’s death.
