OH God! Our government hospitals have recorded six deaths in one month. It is as if these hospitals are in a feverish race to establish a Death Day in the Ministry of Health hospitals. In Hail General Hospital, two women died, one of them died with her newborn baby boy. The Ministry of Health has denied that one of the women had died due to oxygen supply cutoff. It only sufficed for the hospital investigating committee to report this denial but it did not tell us the cause of death. If she did not die because of disruption of oxygen supply, then how did she die? This “how” has not been answered by the ministry. The total of unexplained deaths adds to six. How shocking! The latest death was that of a 17-year-old teenage girl. She died in the Gynecology and Obstetrics Hospital in Khamis Mushayt governorate where the hospital said the death was probably due to a clot in the lung. They were not even sure about the cause of death. When they guessed about the diagnosis, then death might probably have been caused by inefficient obstetrics staff. The report indicated that one of the doctors in Qunfudha General Hospital was incompetent. A night before the death of the teenage girl, a woman breathed her last in Qunfudha General Hospital after giving birth to a baby. The hospital issued a statement saying complications occurred following surgery. The woman was given transfusion with six blood units, but she did not respond. Her condition deteriorated until she died. It is not known why she suffered a hemorrhage. Actually this is one of the secrets of the profession.
We have six deaths caused by our great hospitals. All the deaths occurred during delivery. Just imagine, since when does delivering babies cause six deaths? Then how about heart, liver and kidney operations? Regrettably our hospitals are in a terrible state of deterioration. Prior to these two incidents, I have received reports and pictures on the situation at Qunfudha General Hospital, which is suffering from a shortage of everything. I was waiting for an opportunity to write about this hospital, but its deterioration did not give me sufficient time. It beat me with the death of the woman Sharifah. In the article I wrote on the demise of two female victims at the Hail General Hospital, I requested the ministry to “plug the hole” in Hail Hospital before the death of more patients due to a medical error or negligence. However, this appeal did not help as two other holes exploded in two different hospitals where two more women died. By God, what can we do? If we only bury our faces in our hands bemoaning the situation in our government hospitals, it is of no use. If we start shouting loudly to make our voices heard, it is also futile. Does this mean that it is necessary to abandon the hospitals and encourage use of herbs and resort to midwives, a journey to olden days?
