Child’s body disappears from Saudi hospital

Dammam: The General Directorate for Health Affairs in the Eastern Province, in cooperation with the security authorities, has opened an extensive investigation into the disappearance of a child’s body after his death at a private hospital in Alkhobar.

Assad Saud, the official spokesman for the directorate, said the child’s father had filed a complaint to the health director accusing the management of the hospital of being complicit in the disappearance of his child’s body.

“The complaint was referred immediately to the competent department in order to form a committee to investigate the complaint,” said the spokesman.

He added that the director had also issued a decision to ban travel by doctors and staff until the investigations had been completed.

“A committee at the hospital was formed to handle the procedures which should involve photocopying the entire medical file of the mother and child,” he explained.

He said the committee had now completed all the procedures concerning the contents of the complaint, and has checked the date and time of the admission to the hospital of the mother and child.

“Procedures are underway to determine whether a medical error occurred. Any detected violations will be referred to the violations committee for further follow-up,” said the spokesman.