Medical negligence behind El-Ayouti's death but not Nadine Shams': Forensic

Tuesday 08-07-2014 01:58 PM
Medical negligence behind El-Ayouti's death but not Nadine Shams': Forensic

Patients wait to see a doctor at Al-Moniera public hospital in Cairo October 2, 2012. REUTERS/Amr Abdallah Dalsh

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The forensic report examining two cases of medical negligence that had attracted recent media attention was revealed on Tuesday, confirming one case and refuting the other.

The report pertaining to the case of Heba El-Ayouti -- a 26-year-old woman who died last month when doctors gave her an unnecessary injection while she was undergoing a routine scan -- proved that the hospital’s doctors and nurse had "committed a grave error".

An arrest warrant was issued for the doctor accused of El-Ayouti's death and four nurses on 14 June.

Hesham Abdel-Hameed, spokesman of the Forensic Medicine Authority, said the nurse who was responsible for El-Ayouti had poured formaldehyde (also known as Methanal) in an empty bottle instead of the contrast dye used in the scan that El-Ayouti was to undergo.

The injection was administered by a second nurse.

He said that the doctor's mistake was "ignoring the pain that Heba experienced after the injection” adding that he should have called gynecologists to remove the deadly substance.

Nadine Shams

Meanwhile, the report has also stated that the doctor who performed the surgery for scriptwriter Nadine Shams, who died in the hospital in March, had not committed any medical error.

Shams' family had accused her doctors of making a mistake during an operation she had undergone days before her death.

Medical negligence is alarmingly common in Egypt.

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