CAIRO: The Health Ministry launched an investigation into the death of two patients at the Nile Badrawi Hospital in Maadi, both of whom reportedly used defective oxygen tanks while in surgery.
The two, 16-year-old Ali Khalifa and 47-year-old Laila Mokhtar, died Tuesday afternoon after undergoing minor surgeries.
“We started the investigations but at this point we can’t draw any conclusions for official release, Dr Saad El Maghraby, the head of the investigation committee assigned by the ministry and also head of the central administration for non-governmental organizations and licenses, told Daily News Egypt.
The committee will examine all the tools, medical equipment and anything that was used inside the operating rooms of the victims.
Minister of Health Hatem El Gabaly asked El Maghraby’s committee to update him with the latest findings, according to Abdel Rahman Shahin, the ministry’s official spokesperson. The committee includes Dr Mahmoud Metny, a surgeon, Dr Ahmed Abdel Razek, an anesthesiologist, and engineer Ihab Gamal, a consultant on medical engineering.
The prosecution office is still investigating the incident and interrogating the doctors who operated on the victims. The doctors reportedly said that the surgeries were successful and the victims exhibited these convulsions after they were released from the operating room.
The first victim, Khalifa, experienced serious complications after having collarbone surgery. In the intensive care unit, doctors noticed he was turning blue while experiencing nervous convulsions. They weren’t able to rescue him
Khalifa’s father, Hassan Khalifa, told Orbit TV’s nightly talk show “Al-Qahera Al Youm that he blames the hospital for negligence. “This is supposed to be one of the best hospitals and this is what happened. . We are not asking for anything except that this negligence be punished so there wouldn’t be more victims, he said.
Mokhtar was undergoing surgery to remove a fatty cyst, during which she also used oxygen tanks. After surgery, Mokhtar suffered the same complications as Khalifa and lost her life.
Doctors were able to save two patients who showed the same symptoms after surgery.
When Hassan Khalifa saw three patients just out of the operating room around the same time suffering the same complications, he became suspicious and reported the incident to Cairo’s prosecution office. Authorities immediately launched an investigation and confiscated nearly 35 oxygen tanks from the hospital to test the levels of oxygen and nitrous-oxide in them.
When contacted by Daily News Egypt, Alaa Bakry, medical director at Nile Badrawi Hospital, was unavailable for comment. However, according to news reports, while being interrogated, Bakry attributed the incidents to defective oxygen tanks, which he said the hospital buys from the Helwan Gas Company.
