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Dubai: Seven suspects accused of negligence after leaving an Emirati woman to die at hospital following an allegedly botched liposuction surgery have been referred to court.
Records state that the 61-year-old British plastic surgeon, A.B., allowed 41-year-old Indian cleaner, M.K., to participate in the liposuction surgery.
The Public Prosecution charged the doctors, A.B. and 55-year-old Egyptian anaesthesia doctor and consultant, H.Z., with professional misconduct, negligence and malpractice when they left the 27-year-old housewife, L.H., to die at hospital.
A.B. and H.Z. were also charged with allowing unskilled personnel to practice medicine. The doctors asked 48-year-old Pakistani nurse, S.N., to wake up the woman who was still under anaesthesia, which caused her to stop breathing, as confirmed by the medical reports.
The Pakistani nurse was also charged with accidentally causing the death of L.H. when she implemented the doctors' orders to give the patient a reviving injection [special injection that wakes up anaesthetised patients] and stopping the respirator.
The 53-year-old Syrian hospital director, R.A., was also charged with failing to supervise the doctors [A.B. and H.Z.].
Charges
M.K., S.N., 38-year-old Filipino healthcare technician, R.M., and 33-year-old Filipina nurse, N.C., were also charged with unlawfully practicing medicine.
Chief Prosecutor Mohammad Ali Saeed Khalaf said the deceased had gone for a liposuction at the Dubai-based hospital.
"Shortly after the surgery started, the anaesthesia doctor left the hospital for a personal matter... the plastic surgeon followed him shortly after that and claimed that the surgery had tired him ... they left the deceased under the supervision of unskilled and unspecialised people. Investigations revealed that the hospital's management turned a blind eye to certain professional misconduct and blunders in such profit-making surgeries," said Khalaf.
Do you know anyone who has suffered because of a plastic surgery gone badly wrong? What recourse did they seek? Were they able to rectify the mistakes? Share your stories with us at letter2editor@gulfnews.com or fill in the form below to send your comments.
Your comments
I encourage an investigation committee to scrutinize these hospitals and to form an organized office where citizens can report these types of unprofessional acts. Names of these hospitals and doctors should be publically stated in these articles.I hope that Plastic Surgeon gets a life prison verdict. Fred Dubai,UAE Posted: May 21, 2008, 11:40
There are a lot of semi-professionals parading themselves as professionals. Having a medical degree does not make you a doctor or anesthetist. You need many years of experience treating thousands of real patients. Such exposure and experience should be mandatory for this is an important profession. High malpractice compensation amounts, a million Dirhams plus, also will go a long way in clinics being more serious about the procedures and quality.
Rajiv Dubai,UAE Posted: May 21, 2008, 11:05
These kinds of doctors should be punished in a way so that another doctor would get scared of doing such acts, because this is not new in Dubai, but no strict action has been taken until now. Sudhir Dubai,UAE Posted: May 21, 2008, 10:43
It sounds more like a Hitchcock movie, I hope those doctors never get to practise medicine ever again and get such a punishment which would cause shockwaves and make other negligent professionals in medicine have values and integrity for what they do. Adrian Ajman,UAE Posted: May 21, 2008, 10:22
If prices for good medical care and finding a good doctor in the UAE were not enough! This is one area the government really needs to work on. Additionally, the papers must publish the name of such clinics/hospitals so that the rest of the public is made aware. Sadaf Dubai,UAE Posted: May 21, 2008, 06:53
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