year-old Majed Basaeed on Thursday after 11 days in a coma has been described by hospital officials as “a result of brain damage”. Dr. Ashraf Amir, spokesman for the International Medical Center where Majed was admitted after lying for 20 minutes at the bottom of a swimming pool while on a school trip, said that his condition had deteriorated and his “heart stopped as a result of extremely low blood pressure caused by brain death”. A hospital report stated that the brain death was a result of oxygen being cut off from the brain for an extended period of time. Majed had been on life-support since April 10 and was soon pronounced brain dead, leaving his father faced with the option of leaving his son connected, disconnecting him, or seeking assistance abroad. Mudrek Basaeed said after his son's death was officially announced that Majed's case would “remain alive until the persons responsible are punished”. “We do not expect school to turn into every parent's nightmare,” Basaeed said. “I'm confident that the authorities will pursue the case, and I myself will legally pursue those whose negligence led to Majed's death.” Majed reportedly lay at the bottom of the pool at King Fahd Coastal City for 20 minutes before he was rescued by fellow pupils. They said later that the lifeguard at the site failed to hear their cries for help because he was “busy talking on the telephone”. The pupils added that the First Aid room at the Coastal City refused to attend to Majed on the pretext that he required “urgent hospital attention”, and he was taken by ambulance to hospital where doctors said that 45 minutes had elapsed between the boy's removal from the pool and his arrival. Majed's father said last week that he had been told by doctors that his son's brain death “could have been avoided”. “Dr. Khaled Alim, the deputy manager of the International Medical Center, said a deterioration in Majed's condition could have been avoided if he had been given mouth-to-mouth resuscitation within five or ten minutes of being rescued,” he said.
