Prematurely born twins, who were pronounced dead shortly after their birth in hospital, started crying as their father prepared to bury them at a cemetery.
The girls – Zahra and Fatima – later died after he rushed them back to Salmaniya Medical Complex. The Health Ministry has launched an investigation into the tragedy.
“We’re determined to find out how this was allowed to happen,” said devastated dad, Qassim Al Biladi.
He and his wife, who was six months’ pregnant at the time of the birth at around 1am on Friday, were told that the babies were born too prematurely to survive and that there were no signs of life.
It was only when one of them was heard crying and moving as she was being cleaned in readiness for the burial around 10 hours later that the family’s ordeal took a dramatic twist which ended in further heartache.
“I took my wife to the hospital at 7pm on Thursday evening and I was told she was giving birth prematurely,” Mr Al Biladi told the GDN. “She gave birth to the first infant on her own, without any care or assistance. She was alone, crying in pain for more than half an hour in a shared room, not even in a maternity unit.
“For the birth of the second child there were two nurses with her. A doctor and another nurse came in and told her that the girls would not live.
“She begged them each to put them on a ventilator but they refused,” he claimed.
“The next morning they gave them to me in a bag and I stayed with my wife for a time, then went to the cemetery and arrived at 10.30am to get the grave prepared.
“I didn’t have the heart to look at them this entire time until they were being cleaned and that’s when we heard them crying.
“I rushed them back to SMC where one died after a few hours and the other passed away later on Friday night.
“Still, to this day, I don’t have their bodies and I have raised a complaint with the Public Prosecution and the National Health Regulatory Authority (NHRA),” he added.
Mr Al Biladi said that he was given a hospital report for their burial when he first received them.
He was able to record one of the girls crying on his smartphone at the cemetery in Bilad Al Qadeem, close to the family home. The couple has two sons, Abdullah, eight, and Ali, two. He also claimed that SMC staff questioned him when he took the girls back for treatment instead of taking care of them right away.
The Health Ministry has suspended a doctor involved in the case as an investigation is carried out, according to acting chief executive of government hospitals, Dr Ahmed Al Ansari.
“A special investigation committee was formed under the chairmanship of SMC chief physician Dr Nabil Al Asheeri, in accordance with the Civil Service Law, and a doctor was suspended from working at Salmaniya Medical Complex until the completion of the investigation committee’s work,” he said. “The necessary legal measures will be taken against whoever is found to be at fault, according to the findings of the investigation committee, in co-operation with the Health Ministry and the NHRA and under the direct supervision of the Supreme Council for Health.”
Dr Al Ansari stressed the authorities would not be complacent or spare any effort to make sure that anyone found to be responsible would be held accountable, especially when it came to fulfilling the roles entrusted on them as health providers.
Six MPs, led by Hamad Al Kooheji, have called for Parliament to conduct its own investigation into the death of the twins. They wish to summon Health Minister Faeqa Al Saleh and plan to discuss the matter on Tuesday. Other MPs, including Mamdooh Al Saleh, have also expressed a wish to question the minister.
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