Ibrahim Shehab

Okaz/Saudi Gazette

JEDDAH — The father of a child who died from a medical error committed by a doctor working for Erfan and Bagedo Hospital said he had no hand in the hospital’s closure.



Yusuf Abdul Latif Jameel said the hospital was closed down because of a Ministry of Health decision, not because he was rich.



He added that he planned to file a lawsuit against the hospital before it was shut down.



The Ministry of Health had already made it clear to the hospital’s owners that the ministry would take tough measures against the hospital if it repeated the same mistake that killed Dr. Tariq Al-Jehani, Jameel said.



Al-Jehani died from an excessive dose of anesthesia while undergoing a stomach bypass.



He said: “This demonstrates that I had no role in the closure of the hospital.



“It should be understood that I have rights as is the case with all citizens. I am no different from any citizen.



“I want to say the minister of health will never listen to me or any other person if we asked him to close the hospital.



“Also, I want to confirm that I didn’t visit the ministry nor did I visit the minister in his office at all.



“Moreover, I don’t know him in person.”



He said this shows the minister took the decision on his own initiative, especially after a teenage girl fell into coma at the same hospital 14 hours after his son’s death.



He said he had information that the hospitals’ owners requested the summary court in Jeddah to overturn the ministry’s decision.



He added: “If this happens, I will file a lawsuit against the hospital.”

He said he met with his lawyer and told him he was not interested in the private settlement offer of SR300,000.



He said: “My only aim is to prevent the recurrence of such mistakes.

“What happened at the hospital is a similar scenario to a driver who exceeded the speed limit and killed 10 people.

“What would be the punishment for this driver?”