Arab News

Yanbu, Nov 5: The Yanbu General Hospital yesterday announced a change in the condition of Fatima Rifaie, a 33-year-old Saudi woman who was declared brain dead following a medical error three months ago.

“My sister’s condition has improved considerably. She has begun recognizing and talking to relatives who come to visit her,” Eid Rifaie, Fateema’s brother, told Arab News yesterday. However, Eid added that it would take months before his sister returned to normalcy.

Fateema, who was a chronic asthma patient, went into a coma after she was allegedly administered a banned antibiotic on Aug. 3. The doctor who administered the injection, allegedly a Syrian, has been suspended.

Dr. Yaser Redwan, a heart consultant at Erfan and Saiedi General Hospital in Yanbu, later examined Fateema and said she was brain dead and that her heart had stopped as a result of the injection. He said that the delay in treating her after her condition worsened had resulted in brain atrophy that later left her brain dead. Redwan blamed the doctor for Fateema’s condition and said he had not tested to see whether the patient was allergic to the antibiotic.

Fateema was later transferred to King Fahd Hospital in Madinah. On Aug. 27, doctors reported that she was not brain dead but that she was in a coma. After an emergency surgery to revive her in Madinah, she was sent back to the Yanbu hospital to continue treatment.