Doctor's error leaves baby disabled forever in UAE

Ras Al Khaimah - Paediatrician, who fled UAE, slapped with jail term.

A baby boy has sustained a permanent disability during delivery at a hospital here. The disability in the left hand of the baby proved to be the result of a medical error by the Asian pediatrician in charge.
Though the hospital terminated the errant pediatrician, the baby's father filed a lawsuit with the RAK courts seeking punishment and financial damages.
Kamel Al Sayed, the lawyer representing the father, said the paediatrician escaped from the country before he filed a lawsuit with the court on behalf of his client.
The RAK Misdemeanour Court, based on the medical report issued by the Ministry of Health and Prevention, sentenced the erring paediatrician to one year in jail, and ordered her to pay a fine of Dh300,000 in compensation for the disability.
Meanwhile, the RAK Public Prosecution is investigating another medical error case, in which a specialist orthopedic with a medical centre here has erroneously diagnosed a European patient with a broken leg. As a result, the woman patient suffered muscle atrophy, and could no longer walk normally as she used to. The medical record showed that the patient sustained a fracture in one of her legs after she fell down. She moved to a medical centre for treatment and medical care, but the specialist orthopedic failed to diagnose her illness in a proper way.
Though the woman did the due medical tests and scans at the same centre, the orthopedic doctor in charge gave her a wrong medicine, which made her condition worse.
The European patient took the medicine prescribed and did the follow-ups required at the centre for one full year, but she did not recover, and her leg bones were improperly healed.
ahmedshaaban@khaleejtimes.com

• Ras Al Khaimah