The NSHR branch was responding to a complaint from a Saudi citizen about the Red Crescent’s refusal to take the body of his son to the nearest hospital on Saturday.
The citizen said in his complaint that one of his sons was killed in a traffic accident while traveling with his younger son from Jeddah to the Eastern Province.
The citizen had to take care of the other son who was critically injured while the other son’s body was lying on the road. He called the Red Crescent but it refused to take his injured son to hospital as well as declining to transport the other son’s body to a morgue. He said he had to guard the body for a long time as a result.
He was in serious shock because of the Red Crescent’s actions, he said in the complaint. The dead man was working in the Eastern Province and the younger brother was a secondary school student.
The NSHR branch said it noticed some instances of failure on the part of the first-aid providing agency in responding to accident cases in the past, particularly in remote locations.
The NSHR had then discussed the matter with the Red Crescent officials especially in Leeth and some other centers along the coastal road. On many occasions bodies had to be carried in open trucks or private cars in the absence of Red Crescent assistance, an NSHR source said.
