DUBAI // A 23-year-old woman who went for gastric band surgery died because medical staff were negligent, Dubai Court of Misdemeanours has ruled.
Omani F K went with her sister, S K, 21, to have the surgery because she weighed nearly 130 kilograms, but after she died, four medical professionals were found guilty of mistakenly causing her death.
The woman had visited a doctor in Abu Dhabi who advised her to see Iraqi defendant A A, 56, who he said was an experienced surgeon.
On June 17 last year the woman and her sister visited the Iraqi’s clinic in Jumeirah, where he agreed to fit the band the next day at Balhoul hospital, in Deira.
The surgery took two hours and then F K was referred to the intensive-care unit. “I then saw nurses and doctors running to where my sister was and the nurses carrying tools in a hurry, so I went to some of the doctors and asked but they told me not to worry and that my sister was fine,” said S K, who realised that her sister was having difficulty breathing.
“A A then came and I asked him why my sister had a tube in her mouth. He said it was normal and that she had liquids in her chest and maybe an injury in her lung.”
The doctor told the sister not to worry and that her condition was normal, but she was then told by another doctor that her sister’s condition was poor. SK fainted at this news and woke about an hour later to find her sister dead.
The sister and family refused a post-mortem examination and did not even wish to file a case against the operating team. “We wanted to take her body for burial as soon as we could,” said S K.
But a suspected negligence report was submitted by the hospital and a Dubai Health Authority committee investigated the incident. They found that the team had made several procedural mistakes and failed to carry out several tests considered essential for a patient in F K’s condition.
The Iraqi doctor, A A, denied mistakenly causing the death by failing to follow up with the team on carrying out the necessary tests.
Fellow Iraqis A K, 38, the anaesthetist, and R A, 47, the ICU head, as well as Indian S H, 58, also an ICU head, all denied mistakenly causing death by failing to conduct necessary tests and by not using the respirator properly.
All four were convicted and each ordered to pay a fine of Dh21,000. A A, R A and S H were ordered to jointly pay blood money to the family of F K. But the defendants appealed and will appear before Dubai Court of Appeal next month.
salamir@thenational.ae
