DOCTORS FAIL TO SPOT BATTERY IN...
Added On : 17th March 2009
DOCTORS FAIL TO SPOT BATTERY IN
CHILD'S NOSE QUNFUDAH An incorrect medical diagnosis led to a child being left with a hole in his
nose cartilage after a doctor failed to spot a battery inserted up one of his nostrils.
I took
my two-year-old, Ahmed, to Al-Qunfudah Hospital because he had a pain in his nose, said the childs father, Abdullah Kheder. The emergency doctor inspected
my son and then gave him an X-ray. He then said Ahmed just had a swelling.
Abdullah took Ahmed
home, but the pain continued and three days later he took him back to the same doctor. I told him that I wanted Ahmed to be seen by a specialist, but the
doctor refused saying he was fine, Kheder said.
I ignored him and went to the manager who
referred me to an ENT specialist, who discovered there was a piece of plastic in his nose. He tried to get it out rather clumsily but couldnt, so he
prescribed some medicines and asked me to come back in three days.
Ahmed later started to bleed
and his father took him to King Fahd Hospital in Jeddah, where they discovered a remote control battery inside his nose. They immediately removed it.
The battery had, however, been inside Ahmeds nose for a week, where it had started to erode,
damaging the cartilage and burning a hole.
Following three days of treatment, Ahmed improved and
was discharged from hospital, his father said. But who is responsible for the permanent hole in his nose cartilage?
The father has every right to make a complaint against the doctor, said Dr. Abdul Fattah, Director of Health Affairs in
Qunfudah. It was the doctors carelessness which led to this.
Kheder has asked the Ministry of
Health to investigate the case. Okaz/SG
Ahmed Al-Gubaishi - Saudi Gazette
