Shahd Alhamdan

Saudi Gazette

JEDDAH — The wife of a Saudi man who has been left seriously ill after undergoing a gallbladder operation that went wrong at a private hospital in Jeddah has spoken out for the first time.



Yasser Sheikh, who is in his 40s, was admitted at the unnamed hospital after suffering severe pain and inflammation that required him to undergo a gallbladder operation. The mistakes of the doctor who carried out the surgery have resulted in him suffering additional health complications, said his wife Mariam Abdullah.



“The surgery was carried out by a doctor at a private hospital. After a few days, weird marks appeared on my husband’s body,” she said. “When I asked the doctor about this, he explained it was normal because of the inflammation and incision. I asked the doctor again on the fifth day as the problem continued and his answer was the same,” she added.



In spite of the doctor’s assurances that the marks were normal, Sheikh’s health deteriorated on the sixth day.



“On the sixth day, the doctor came with his assistant and told me that my husband needed to be transferred to another private hospital since the bile channels were unable to move liver enzymes,” said Abdullah.



Sheikh was subsequently transferred to another private hospital. “He underwent further surgery at the other hospital and it was then that the doctor there realized that my husband’s bile ducts had been cut and that the doctor in the previous hospital had also forgotten a clip inside his body,” said Abdullah.



She added: “We filed a complaint with the Ministry of Health several months ago but have still not yet received a reply. Yasser is very sick and unable to do anything strenuous. He might even lose his job because of this.”



The private hospital where Sheikh underwent the first operation declined to comment when contacted by Saudi Gazette.