TABUK — A judge has asked the authorities to catch those responsible for burning the toes of his newborn baby boy. Sheikh Ali Bin Muhammad Al-Sawee, who works at a Tabuk court, said his wife gave birth at the Maternity and Children's Hospital in Tabuk. He said the baby remained in intensive care for 12 days because two days after the birth his left foot was covered with gauze. Al-Sawee said when he asked the nurse about it she told him the baby's temperature had dropped. She told him that she had to put him in an infant heat shield and that is how he sustained the burns. He said when the baby's condition worsened he was called to the hospital, where he asked staff how the heater didn't fully burn the baby and only his three toes. Al-Sawee said he asked the doctor's line manager to meet the attending doctors. When they did not respond he went to see them personally and only then did they call a doctor specialized in burns treatment from Hail's King Khaled Hospital, he added. Al-Sawee said the doctor, Dr. Wail Naeem, wrote a report indicating the baby had suffered from first, second and third degree burns. After one week he wrote another report showing the baby's condition had worsened, the father said. The doctor recommended immediate surgical intervention and said he might need to amputate the three toes. Al-Sawee said he showed the report, which said the baby had been burned but did not state the cause of the burns, to consultants at the National Guard Hospital in Riyadh and King Fahd Medical City in Riyadh. He said Dr. Nawaf Al-Harithy, Director General of the Health Affairs in Tabuk, tasked a medical committee from King Khaled Hospital to reexamine the baby. Al-Sawee said when he visited Dr. Al-Harithy in his office, he promised him that he would form a committee to look into the case and he would transfer the baby to a specialized hospital in Riyadh. He also promised him that he would task another committee to look into the report by Dr. Naeem that ordered the amputation of the baby's toes without referring the case to consultants.
