Emirati woman slips into coma in botched surgery

Mariecar Jara-Puyod, Senior Reporter

A 24-year-old Emirati woman lapsed into coma due to dangerous complications that she (had) suffered during the Septoplasty procedure by SH and SD at the First Med Day Surgery Centre in Dubai.

The Dubai Health Authority (DHA) will take administrative and legal actions against licenced facilities and members of the medical community found malpracticing and committing neglect.

DHA-Health Regulation Sector chief executive officer Dr Marwan Al Mulla pointed this out on Thursday, following initial investigations by the government entity, showing it had found grounds to bar the First Med Day Surgery Centre Dubai, from further conducting surgical procedures.

Al Mulla added the preliminary probe, handled by a “qualified medical committee,” also had revealed that the facility medical director/anaesthesia specialist SD, and ear-nose-throat specialist SH, committed errors during the conduct of septoplasty on a 24-year-old Emirati woman.

“DHA has stopped these two doctors to conduct surgeries, due to malpractice. Legal action will be taken against all those who risk the lives of patients,” he said, adding that the authority does not take any medical negligence that risks patients’ lives lightly.

Hence, the DHA decision for the doctors not to pursue their practice “until the investigations are complete” and the verdict out.

DHA was alerted of the botched septoplasty, and the physicians’ malpractice and neglect days after it happened about a fortnight back at the facility located in Hamarain Centre in Deira.

Septoplasty is the non-cosmetic surgical procedure that corrects difficulties to airflow arising from the displacement of the bone and cartilage that divides the nostrils, termed as “deviated septum”.

Al Mulla said the patient has been comatose and confined at the intensive care unit (ICU) of a specialized hospital after having been rushed there since the bungled medical procedure.

Reports indicated the specialized hospital was the Cleveland Clinic in Abu Dhabi.

“The 24-year-old Emirati entered a coma due to dangerous complications that she (had) suffered during the Septoplasty procedure by SH and SD at the First Med Day Surgery Centre,” Al Mulla said.

He added: “Oxygen stopped reaching her brain which caused her heart to stop for several minutes.”

Going over the specifics of the DHA preliminary investigations, Al Mulla said that based on the Emirati’s medical files, the patient had no history of any form of cardiovascular or vascular diseases, “prior to undergoing the surgery.”

While the medical committee investigators are continuing their enquiry and review of the botched medical procedure, DHA inferred there was medical negligence in the management of the case by SD and SH on the following grounds:

• They failed to administer sufficient medical examination for surgical intervention prior to the procedure.

• The patient’s anaethesia record during the course of the surgery, which was supposed to be filled up and completed by the anaesthesiologist was discovered to be incomplete. It does not have any documentation of the patient’s vital signs namely the drop of the oxygen in the blood and the cessation of her heartbeat.

• The facility did not provide any medical and clinical/surgery records to the specialized hospital where the Emirati woman was rushed to and where she has been an ICU patient.

Furthermore, the DHA initial probe disclosed that the anaesthesiologist overlooked the time he injected the patient with the anaesthesia as he also did not jot down her condition before the injection.

“This caused confusion in the management of the case and when the patient started going (downhill during the surgery),” Al Mulla said.

Al Mulla cautioned members of the medical community to be careful in dispensing their duties and responsibilities as DHA will not be deterred from taking administrative and legal actions against anyone caught blundering.

Al Mulla said safety of the patient comes first and this is ensured by the implementation of the best medical practices across all government and private health facilities across Dubai.