SHARJAH // Police are investigating assaults on a nine-month-old Emirati baby who is clinging to life in a Sharjah hospital.
Salama Al Mazmi is in a coma at Al Qassimi Hospital, where doctors describe her condition as dire.
The baby has a fractured skull, internal bleeding and bruising on her face. She is breathing and being fed through tubes.
Dr Satish Krishnan, a senior consultant and neurological surgeon at Al Qassimi, said Salama arrived at the hospital unconscious and not breathing.
“Emergency teams resuscitated her and once she started to breathe and was stabilised, a CT scan was carried out and found a blood clot in her brain, from an old injury,” Dr Krishnan said. “The scan revealed a skull fracture and broken rib from a previous injury.”
She has undergone operations to reduce bleeding in her brain and to stabilise her condition.
Salama suffers from low immunity and her twin sister died 12 days after they were born. She also has a three-year-old sister, Shahad.
Her father Salem said he called his wife on the day his daughter stopped breathing last week .
“On July 13, while on duty in the capital, I called my pregnant wife to check up on her,” said Mr Al Mazmi, a serviceman with the Armed Forces.
“She told me that Salama was not breathing and I immediately called my brother to drive her to the emergency room.
“We thought it was something related to her illness, as she was born prematurely and was in an incubator for two months before she was discharged.”
When doctors discovered that her injuries were inflicted, “police came in and questioned me and my wife”, the father said.
The family’s two Indonesian maids were also questioned.
No charges have yet been laid.
tzriqat@thenational.ae
