CAIRO: The Imbaba Misdemeanors Court sentenced four doctors to one year in prison and a LE 200 fine after finding them guilty of negligence that led to the death of a woman who contracted swine flu last year.
The court also obliged the convicted doctors to pay a civil compensation of LE 10,000 to the victim’s family.
Twenty-five year old Noura Hashim Mohamed was infected with the H1N1 virus known as swine flu, but was denied treatment in several hospitals, which eventually led to her death last November.
She first went to Om El-Masryeen Hospital then Al-Sadr Hospital in Imbaba then Al-Sadr Hospital in Abbassiya. None of them offered her treatment.
Her death was declared the sixth swine flu fatality in Egypt.
The four doctors found guilty are Moataz Magdy, Mohamed Amrallah, Mourad Fatouh and Adel Gadallah, all of whom are from Om El-Masryeen Hospital.
At the time, the number of swine flu-related deaths in Egypt was still in the single digits, but the number of infected cases was increasing exponentially. The Ministry of Health had reported 197 new cases, which was the highest number reported in a single day since the virus first appeared in Egypt last June.
In the same week as Mohamed’s death, the ministry announced that there will be no more daily reports on the number of swine flu cases in the country since it had reached a limit after which, according to epidemiologists, further increases would not cause any serious complications or an unusual rate of deaths.
Om El-Masryeen is a public hospital operating under the Ministry of Health and is listed among hospitals citizens should report to when experiencing flu-like symptoms.
Last month, the talk show “90 Minutes” aired a segment about a lawyer who accused Om El-Masryeen Hospital of removing his wife’s cornea after she passed away without informing him or seeking his consent.
The Ministry of Health, however, held a press conference denying the incident. Abdel Rahman Shahin, ministry spokesperson, said that what was published about the case was “completely incorrect and fabricated.”
