Hospital asked to pay Dhs2m in compensation

The Dubai Civil Court recently ordered Rashid Hospital, run by the Dubai Health Authority (DHA), to pay Dhs2 million to a patient as compensation for a medical error, which led to the victim’s visual impairment and other illnesses. Now he is wheelchair-bound. The court ordered the DHA to pay Dhs2 million after the authority’s medical committee confirmed the error by the doctors who treated him. They applied a wrong injection technique, which resulted in the above-mentioned complications. The victim’s lawyer had earlier demanded Dhs15 million as compensation before the same court. The patient, who is a government employee, aged 43, and the father of seven children and the sole bread-winner of his family, suffers from a collapsed visual nerve, lack of memory and difficulty in talking. Besides, his muscles are weakening gradually. The victim was first admitted to Rashid Hospital in 2007 because of anal bleeding. He regained health after receiving a number of injections. However, in March 2008 he started to experience severe abdominal pain, high body temperature, shivering, vomiting among other complications until the doctor on duty decided to admit him for laparoscopic appendectomy, hoping for a quicker recovery. However, three days later the doctors were compelled to take him for another operation after the first one failed to stop bleeding in the upper gastrointestinal tract. Meanwhile, the patient was later taken to Thailand in Nov. 2008 for treatment. After returning to Dubai in June 2009, he was readmitted to Rashid Hospital, where he has been receiving his treatment.