year-old woman had her left leg amputated allegedly as a result of a medical mistake committed by doctors at Dammam Medical Tower, press reports said. The Health Affairs in Dammam said it examined a complaint lodged by the woman's husband and the case was transferred to the legal medical committee to take action. Narrating the tragic story, Abdullatif Al-Khashen, the woman's husband, said: "I took her to hospital after she felt numbness on her left foot and showing symptoms of a stroke. But a wrong diagnosis at the Armed Forces Hospital showed she was fine." After a blood test and X-ray, doctors gave her medicines, she was sent home. But when the pain persisted, he took his wife to the same hospital for a second time. After that she was taken to the Dammam Medical Tower for specialized treatment. The consultant at the medical tower proposed surgery as the treatment option and two operations were conducted within 48 hours, Al-Khashen said. "A vascular surgeon at the medical tower then informed me that the woman's leg had to be amputated." Al-Khashen then took her to King Fahd Specialist Hospital where doctors said her condition had become serious after acidity had reached her heart. "A doctor at the hospital told me that my wife's left leg was to be amputated because of medical negligence," he said. Distressed by his wife's suffering, Al-Khashen later tried to contact Health Minister Khalid Al-Falih several times but could not reach him. However, the minister sent his office manager to meet him. Al-Khashen urged the minister to provide his wife with specialized treatment inside or outside the Kingdom. Asaad Saud, spokesman for Dammam Health Affairs, confirmed that his organization had received a complaint from the woman's husband and had been transferred to the technical department for action. He said Al-Khashen had lodged complaints against specific members of the medical staff at the Armed Forces Hospital and Dammam Medical Tower. "We have sent a letter to the assistant director general of health affairs to assess the woman's condition and requested all medical reports related to the woman," the spokesman said. The department later contacted the King Fahd Specialist Hospital and Dammam Medical Tower to get medical reports and asked the Armed Forces Hospital to give its reply to the man's complaint. "We have sent all these reports to King Fahd Specialist Hospital for study. After the case was studied by the technical consultancy committee it was passed to the legal medical committee to take an appropriate decision," the spokesman said.
