“We sent over 800 Saudi patients abroad for treatment last year after a special panel found their conditions required treatment at highly specialized foreign hospitals,” the ministry said.
The ministry was responding to a complaint made by Ali bin Omar Majrashi, a Saudi, regarding the treatment of his children Muhammad and Asma in the United States.
Muhammad, 15, was suffering from sickle-cell anemia with complications leading to kidney failure. After receiving necessary treatment at King Faisal Specialist Hospital in Riyadh, he was sent to the US in 2000 at the government’s expense to treat renal failure at the Children’s Hospital in Los Angeles.
“Muhammad had undergone a kidney transplant surgery in 2002. When his condition stabilized, the Higher Medical Authority said the patient should be sent back to King Faisal Hospital in Riyadh to complete his treatment,” the ministry said, adding that his parents were informed about that. “But his father did not agree to return and continued treatment at the US hospital,” the statement said.
Later the doctor treating Muhammad said he would require a bone marrow transplant surgery. The committee then decided to send him back to the US, but later it was learned that he was not fit for that surgery.
On the basis of a royal decree that has limited the treatment period of all cases abroad to three months, the committee decided to continue Muhammad’s treatment in the Kingdom.
Referring to the case of Asma, 10, who was also suffering from the same disease, the ministry said she was given treatment at the Children’s Center for Cancer and Blood Diseases in Los Angeles. After providing necessary treatment at the US hospital, the committee decided to shift her to King Faisal Specialist Hospital in Riyadh. The committee had sent her again to the US for two surgeries.
“The ministry has spent more than SR3.68 million on the two patients and the relatives who had accompanied them during the second phase of the treatment,” the statement said, adding that the cost of the first phase was paid by the late Prince Sultan.
“The two patients have received full treatment abroad at state expense abroad for nine months, despite the availability of world-class treatment available in the Kingdom for their diseases,” the ministry said.
Health Minister Dr. Abdullah Al-Rabeeah, meanwhile, visited two Saudi children receiving treatment at the American National Hospital in Washington. He said the number of Saudi patients sent abroad for treatment in 2010 reached 870. About 56 percent of them received treatment at US hospitals, he added.
