Saudi Gazette report

NAJRAN — The heirs of Dhiyab Khadran Al-Jabbar, who died during a weight-loss surgery at King Khalid Hospital in Najran, said they would pursue the case with the Administrative Court in Asir to win their legitimate rights after the legal health committee in Najran returned the case to the regional health department saying it lacked jurisdiction to give a verdict on the issue.

The heirs had filed a lawsuit against King Khalid Hospital demanding compensation for allegedly causing the death of Al-Jabbar.

"We will pursue the case with relevant authorities at any cost to win the rights of our client," Ali Al-Hattab, the lawyer of Al-Jabbar family told Al-Watan Arabic daily.

Al-Hattab said he had received the 30-page ruling issued by the legal health committee on Sunday.

"The committee's preliminary verdict has prompted us to take the next step and approach the administrative court in Asir in order to compel the legal health committee in Najran to take up the case being the competent authority according to the rules and regulations," Al-Hattab said.

The legal committee met last Wednesday under the chairmanship of judge Dr. Fahd Bin Hassan Mashikhi and gave its ruling even though a committee member objected to the ruling insisting that the case comes under the committee's jurisdiction as the incident took place in Najran.

The committee issued its ruling following delaying tactics adopted by two defendants who refused to attend the hearings while their legal representatives were not ready to answer questions.

The committee member who opposed the ruling stated that the case was not merely about medical error, but there were circumstances that need to be clarified by the defendants and the incident must be thoroughly examined by an expert panel after visiting the hospital.

Al-Hattab said the evidences and documents he had presented to the committee proved his claims against the defendant and his medical team. The patient's first file showed that he had bleeding and the number of blood bags used to compensate that loss of blood.

The documents also proved that the doctor who performed the surgery was a new graduate and lacked experience required for conducting such operations. At the same time, the presence of a cardiologist was not required in the operation room for conducting obesity surgery.

Al-Hattab also referred to the opinion given by an obesity expert after going through the patient's file. According to him, it was not only a medical error but the process had violated medical ethics.

The expert also pointed out that the matter should have been taken up by the criminal bench.

The surgeon who conducted the operation defended himself, saying he had assisted hundreds of sleeve gastrectomies and other weight-loss surgeries at the National Guard Hospital in Riyadh, Asir Central Hospital and King Khalid Hospital in Najran.

"These surgeries included about 100 sleeve gastrectomies and I did not face any problems during those operations," the surgeon said. Apart from receiving training at hospitals inside the Kingdom, he had received training at Strasburg Hospital in France. He also attended more than 15 workshops and training courses in obesity in several countries.

He said he believed the patient died of a stroke. The surgeon also pointed out that the cutting of an artery had nothing to do with Al-Jabbar's death.

The surgeon defended the anesthesiologist, saying he had good experience in the field. Referring to the cause of low pressure, he said: "In fact the pressure dropped suddenly and this is a sure sign of heart or pulmonary artery failure," he added.

Khadran Al-Jabbar, the victim's father, said on April 4, 2013, the defendant had posted a message on his Twitter account while working at King Khalid Hospital that an American team will conduct obesity operations in the hospital. He said his son agreed to the operation only after the defendant confirmed that the surgery would be conducted by the American team.

In the last committee session, the legal representative of the defendant asked the chairman and members of the health committee and its members to drop the discussion on the case as it does not come under their jurisdiction and that some of its members have enmity toward his client.

The agent also pointed out that the opinion of the obesity expert was unacceptable because he was a member of the team that conducted the surgery.