NSHR calls for new probe into Riham’s blood-transfusion case

Ahmad Al-Bahkali, the general supervisor of the National Society for Human Rights’ (NSHR) branch in Jazan, has urged officials to re-open the investigation into the case of Riham, the 13-year-old girl, who was the victim of an HIV-contaminated blood transfusion.
Al-Bahkali’s request stems from the fact that the investigation was carried out by the Ministry of Health and could therefore have been biased.
“Officials involved in the investigation dismissed the importance of having a neutral party involved in the inquiry. All the parties involved in the investigation should not be linked to the Ministry of Health; it does not make sense to have defendant acting as the judge in the same instance,” he said.
He also told Arab News that the NSHR has received information about new cases in which medical errors occurred in the same hospital Riham was admitted. He confirmed that the NSHR was working on these cases, however he declined to reveal details.
The ministry closed the case by issuing a wide-range of decisions. However, there are still many lingering questions that have not been answered. Al-Bahkali’s added that the accused did not have a chance to defend themselves and many of the decisions were hastily issued, especially in sacking officials, without resolving the root of the problem.
Meanwhile, the Health Affairs spokesman in Jazan said he was unaware of the details of the committee’s investigation.
“The case has been closed given the ministry’s decisions against some of the hospital officials implicated in the incident,” said spokesman Muhammad Al- Sumaili. He also refused to comment on the decision of the hospital technician to sue the ministry.
A spokesman for Health Affairs in Jazan said he was unaware of the details of the committee’s investigation.
“The case is closed given the ministry’s decisions to fire some of the hospital officials involved in Riham’s case,” said spokesman Muhammad Al-Sumaili. He did not comment on the decision of the fired lab technician to sue the ministry for arbitrarily sacking him.
In another development the lab technician, Ibrahim Hakami, who mistakenly transferred HIV-contaminated blood to Riham, said he went to work on Feb. 11, to find most of his colleagues absent, including five who had participated in a health awareness campaign. The hospital management was aware of their absence. However, they had not taken any action in response, he said.
On that day the Blood Bank had no blood samples and consequently the blood lab was requested to bring in samples for testing. During the afternoon, Hakami received 40 bags of blood, some were medically acceptable, while others were contaminated with Hepatitis C and B. The sample carrying the HIV virus was marked “re”, but was categorized with the medically suitable samples and placed in the refrigerator due to the intensity of work and the absence of the rest of the technicians.
Hakami said the HIV-contaminated blood was taken from the refrigerator at 10:00pm and the following day when he was informed by the department of viruses that the contaminated sample had been taken, he immediately reported the case to the lab officials and hospital management.
He confirmed that he would sue the Ministry of Health for terminating him, raising questions as to why the preventive medicine department was not under investigation, even though the HIV blood donor had donated twice before.
The HIV-contaminated blood donor is a young man in his third decade, employed at the Ministry of Islamic Affairs in Jazan province and had donated blood twice at King Fahd Hospital according to a reliable source.
Since the media exposed Riham’s ill-fated incident, two other cases have emerged of negligent blood transfusions wreaking havoc on people’s health in Jazan province.
Recently, one woman has died and a young boy has been rendered paralytic due to grave blood transfusion mistakes in the province’s hospitals.
Zara bint Eisa Faqih, 35-year old teacher from Beesh, was administered blood group ‘A’ while she was type ‘O’, which led to her death shortly thereafter.
Hawi, the deceased teacher’s brother, said: “My diabetic sister was admitted to the Beesh General hospital for sickle cell anemia in October 2012. As her doctor prescribed an immediate blood transfusion, Zara was given the blood supplied from the hospital laboratory. Shortly after the transfusion, she went into a state of coma from which she never recovered.”
Another Saudi citizen in Tiwal town in Jazan complained that his son, Mufreh, 10, was bedridden being partially paralyzed and partially blinded due to a blood transfusion error.