DUHOK, Kurdistan Region — A two-year-old from Akre in the Kurdistan Region is now without a hand after it had to be amputated following swelling and infection from intravenous treatment, leaving the father asking for those responsible to be held accountable, while a Kurdish health official has expressed doubts that doctors will voluntarily release such information.
“On Friday evening [April 7], my wife said she had diarrhoea, and that she was taking her to the hospital. And I said OK. She called me during the night telling me they were staying at Akre hospital. She was referred to Gullan Hospital the day after due to her bad health conditions,” the girl’s father, Esam Rajab, told Rudaw.
Until April 10, Esam had obtained medication from this hospital for her diarrhoea condition.
“I saw her hand which had turned blue. It turned darker the day after and eventually turned black. I called the doctor who said the darkness in her hand was because of a false intravenous administration. The doctor then said a surgery was needed on her,” her father added.
On April 11, an operation was done on her hand which was split, but then couldn’t be corrected properly. The doctors referred her to Duhok Emergency Hospital the day after. Her hand was progressively getting darker and more swollen.
Days later a committee from the emergency hospital decided to amputate her hand to prevent further aggravation.
Her father has filed a complaint at Duhok’s police station against Gullan hospital in Akre.
“I don’t know who has administered the intravenous on my daughter erroneously. This person should be discovered and punished,” Rajab said.
“She has to grow up without a hand at this early age,” he added.
The managing assistant at Gullan Hospital, Ahmed Mohammed, confirmed that the condition of the patient was due to a false intravenous administration.
“[The girl] had previously suffered from paralysis. Her body and muscles were very weak. They had taken her to the hospital the other day for diarrhoea. As far as we know, an intravenous was erroneously administered on her, causing blood to go under her skin,” Mohammed said.
He also talked about the nurse who had administered the intravenous line, saying, “We don’t know who administered the intravenous. We have formed a committee to investigate this. We will look into this so we find the person who had administered the intravenous.”
Four complaints have been made against errors made by doctors in Duhok province this year.
“Thus far, relatives of 22 patients had submitted complaints to us about errors made by doctors. Ten of them came from Erbil province, eight from Sulaimani and four from Duhok province. Most of them had filed these complaints to the police,” head of the health committee at Kurdistan’s parliament, Dr Shirin Husni, told Rudaw.
She said that committees were formed to investigate most of these cases, but said that doctors protect their own.
“These committees will not lead to results that are in favour of patients, for the committee members are all doctors who won’t turn their back on their fellow colleagues,” Husni said. “This is why no doctors have been punished yet.
“So far, out of the four cases from the province of Duhok, only one case has been referred to the court, and that was the case of a new medical graduate working as a volunteer. The case is about the fainting of a patient, Bizaf, who underwent surgery two months ago and hasn’t regained consciousness yet.”
Comments
Rudaw moderates all comments submitted on our website. We welcome comments which are relevant to the article and encourage further discussion about the issues that matter to you. We also welcome constructive criticism about Rudaw.
To be approved for publication, however, your comments must meet our community guidelines.
We will not tolerate the following: profanity, threats, personal attacks, vulgarity, abuse (such as sexism, racism, homophobia or xenophobia), or commercial or personal promotion.
Comments that do not meet our guidelines will be rejected. Comments are not edited – they are either approved or rejected.
Post a comment