Ghamdi who prepared herself to receive the septuplets that she carried inside her womb for 22 weeks came crashing down due to medical errors. The babies all died one after the other over a period of three days at King Fahd Hospital in Al-Baha. It all started when Fatimah and her husband went to a hospital on Tuesday after she started experiencing sharp pains. The hospital knew about her case and sent a fax to King Fahd Hospital in Al-Baha but did not receive a reply. One of the officials of the hospital ordered an ambulance to take the lady, who had been waiting for two hours, to King Fahd Hospital. When the ambulance arrived at the hospital, Fatimah was left for half an hour inside an emergency room until her file could be found. The doctor on call transferred Fatimah to the obstetrics department ward on the third floor. The gynecology and obstetrics consultant was contacted several times but there was no response. Fatimah kept bleeding until one of the septuplets came out alive at 7 P.M. However, he did not live for long because of his small size. He weighed only 150 grams. At 8 P.M., consultant doctors arrived and noticed that the placenta had not come out, so they decided to wait fearing for the lives of the other babies. On Wednesday evening, the second fetus reached the cervix and stayed there without medical intervention till 8 P.M. Thursday because there was no doctor available. Afterwards, the baby came out followed by the third one. Then the remaining four babies came out together. There were five males and two females and none of them survived. Fatimah was put under surveillance until Friday morning because she had severe anemia. Muhammad Al-Ghamdi, the father, told Asharq newspaper that he had tried contacting the Minister of Health. “I knew my wife's case was rare and the first of its kind in the Kingdom. That's why I tried to reach the Minister of Health by any means. I contacted him through his email, but I did not get an answer. I realized then that all the promises are just to generate headlines. They are words only,” Al-Ghamdi said. He felt very sad about the state of public hospitals. Al-Ghamdi had contacted the Health Ministry and asked them to transfer his wife to a better hospital because of her unusual pregnancy. His wife was put on a long waiting list of appointments and had to travel over 70 km every two weeks for the appointment. Fatimah said that she has accepted her fate. “I set aside SR1,000 of Hafiz to change the furniture of my house to receive my little babies. But my dreams were dashed. I lived the most difficult four days of my life when I was in hospital but my faith in Allah Almighty never faltered,” she said. Asharq newspaper called Majed Al-Shatti, spokesman of Al-Baha Health Affairs, and asked him about the case. He promised to get back once he had all the details.
