NAJRAN: A Saudi citizen refused Monday to receive the body of his one-year-old son from a Najran hospital where he died and requested a full investigation into his death to determine if it was caused by a medical error. Mubarak Futaih, who suspects that a medial error was committed during treatment of his son, Awad, said he wanted a post-mortem to determine the true cause of his death at Maternity and Children's Hospital in Najran. Futaih lodged a complaint with the Najran Emirate on Monday saying that “the hospital played with his son's body,” citing three little holes in his head where injection needles were used “carelessly.” The little boy also had three-centimeter-long holes in feet, according to the complaint. The Najran Emirate said it would open an investigation into the case. The hospital said the boy had complications that caused a blood clot, Futaih said, and assured him that it would conduct a full medical investigation. The medical director, who admitted that the hospital staff lacked expertise and knowledge to deal with the case, blamed the Ministry of Health for poor recruitment of medical specialists. A nurse made an error by injecting the boy in an artery rather than in a vein, which may have caused him to fall into a coma and die, according to a hospital source. The Najran Health Department has declined to comment on the incident. The National Society for Human Rights said it has appointed a member in Najran to follow up the case and present it with a detailed report about the hospital's conditions. Despite repeated assurances by the Ministry of Health that it will contain medical errors at hospitals, there were at least 1,300 complaints about them in 2009.
