Doha News had reached out to Hamad Medical Corporation [HMC] for comment after hearing the parents’ story but received no response. On Tuesday HMC issued a statement.

Hamad Medical Corporation has denied claims made by a father of a newborn baby that his daughter had suffered brain damage as a result of an error by staff at Hamad Hospital’s pediatric emergency unit.

The father had made the claims during a phone-in session on Qatar Radio’s morning show, “My Beloved Country”, saying that his baby’s heart had stopped due to an air-filled IV drip syringe that a nurse injected into the newborn who had been admitted to the emergency unit due to a high fever.

Doha News reported the story on Monday but received no response from HMC on the matter following a request for a comment.

However, following a public outcry, the health corporation sent a statement to the morning show on Tuesday, informing the public of their side of the story.

The statement confirmed that the parents had taken their newborn to the Al Sadd emergency facility on 27 December, 2021, at 2:30 pm, due to a high fever and a lack of appetite.

Upon her admittance to the centre, doctors conducted all required medical examinations on the baby “per treatment protocols”, HMC stated.

Doctors noted that her vital signs remained normal until 4:14 pm, when the newborn suddenly stopped breathing. According to HMC, doctors took 10 minutes to resuscitate her and not 22 as had been claimed earlier. However Hamad Hospital added that it took medics an additional 10 minutes to restore the baby’s vital signs and stabilise her condition, which could explain the discrepancy between the two accounts.

‘Medical error’ at Hamad Hospital places newborn between life and death

“After inserting a breathing tube into the trachea, a large amount of milk was released from the baby, which confirmed that the cause of the sudden cessation of breathing was the occurrence of severe reflux from the esophagus to the trachea,” explained HMC in its statement, refuting the father’s claim that an air-filled syringe was the cause.

Commenting on the damage caused to the baby’s brain tissues, HMC said that it’s initial investigation showed that,”test results of the baby’s spinal cord fluid, taken by a consultant at the hospital, showed the presence of a virus that led to inflammation in the brain tissue.”

HMC’s statement fell short however of mentioning the alleged findings of Sidra Medicine, who treated the baby following the incident at Al Sadd’s emergency unit.

Scans conducted by doctors at Sidra found a damage in the baby’s brain tissues, declaring that she was “neither dead nor alive.”

Previously, the parents called on Qatar’s Minister of Health Dr. Hanan Mohamed Al Kuwari​​​ to investigate the matter and work on facilitating the baby’s travel for treatment abroad, in addition to compensating them if the investigation proved such a lethal error was indeed made by medical staff at the pediatrics unit in Al-Sadd. _______________________________________________________________