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Kuwait

Medical Negligence

Does anyone know what options a person has in Kuwait if they’re a victim of medical negligence? Is there a government number you can call to register a complaint?

80 replies on “Medical Negligence”

That article shows that there are some people in Kuwait who feel that citizens should get first preference in government clinics and hospitals, and then there are other people (Kuwait Medical Association) that does not agree with that, and considers that all humans are equal.
This happens in every society. Nothing to write home about….yet.

Cajie, you missed the main point. 🙂 which is:

“priority of treatment to Kuwaiti patients regardless of the condition of expatriate patients”

As an expatriate A big thanks to KMA.
But unfortunately this discrimination is already there in Kuwait. Have you ever been to KCC?? some medicines are meant for Kuwaitis only and the same thing goes for heart disease also.

Let them discriminate us in all other areas but please don’t do it in medical care. Whether you are a Kuwaiti or an expatriate if something happens to you then it will be the same feelings for our children.

Yes one of the lawyer mentioned to me not to waste my time but I can’t not think about how my son would be here. They terminated my pregnancy and considered it as an abortion. I was 27 weeks. I want to do something even If it goes to waste but atleast I can say I did my best and I fought for his life; something what mothers are supposed to do – protect their child which I didn’t when he was being
suffocated.

. .

Iam sorry for UR loss. As a father of two kids my moral support will be there with U.

Cheer Up girl!! dont loose your faith and fight against it. Sometiems you may lose but at the end of the day you can say that I did whatever I could do..

I don’t mean to be nosy but since you posted it – why was your pregnancy terminated at 27weeks? Were there complications? Because that makes no sense that a doctor would perform an abortion if the mother didn’t ask for it/there was no risk to her life? There are legal papers that have to be signed before an abortion can be performed so I’m really confused by your post.. I am very sorry for your loss regardless

According to an insider, you have to go to the Admin of the said Hospital or Clinic to file a complain. If not settle there, then you can go to the Ministry of Health.

u wont reach anywhere as Doctors are protected by law as a whole body and there are no unions to regulate it or civil societies to monitor it.So basically, the people that govern this doctor are the same people that u will complain to. the same applies to almost everything, Lawyers, doctors etc if complaints on malpractice are acted upon u will see half the medical body in Jail or deported….

Dude, that must be one of the most ignorant responses I’ve seen. Kuwaiti here and I’d like to know as well as I know quite a few people who would benefit from a service like this. And saying “wake up it’s kuwait” is the reason why this country doesn’t go forward at an appropriate speed.

We should tackle our problems not accept our failures.

goodluck to you too 7abeebi trying to teach us.

Mark, all i’m saying we can have a system and we can buy all the equipment and services to work it out but at the end we dont implement it.

SF i’m very sorry for your loss

shame on you man. what has lebanon got to do with kuwait? and you are talking as if you know that the system is not in place. what if it’s there?

it’s better to know than to end up being in a position like that.

The Egyptian female dermatologist at the International Clinic butchered my friend’s face and then did a coverup. She lied instead of telling her she accidentally slashed her face open. She was numb & didn’t feel it until she got home. The doctor had covered it with a cloth. The clinic offered free laser treatments to help reduce the scar but the Doctor never confessed. She actually cursed my friend out. There is no telling how many people she has butchered. I asked my friend why she didn’t go to a lawyer and she said she didn’t know she could in Kuwait. This was several years ago.

The reason why Mark has inquired about this is for me. I was preganant 27 weeks and recently lost my baby due to medical negligence (private hospital). I saw 3 lawyers out of which one told me not to waste my time.

However, I can’t just sit and do nothing. Losing my son is quite devastating and I don’t want anyone else to go through the same. If anyone has any information, please share.

There is really no simple procedure, I can suggest you to get hold of a strong person who is concern with Ministry and talk with him about it. Women are truly listened in Kuwait and your case is very fragile…

If you just get a lawyer and file complain it will take ages, get a reference, I am sure your family or friend would have it.

Oh my goodness, I feel so sorry for you! I don’t have any advice; my son was born at 24 weeks in a private hospital (spontaneous preterm delivery) and the hospital did everything they could for him, and he is now a thriving 2.5 year old. The private hospital told me that if I had gone to the government hospital, they would not have saved him, as they have a “cut-off” of 25 weeks for saving. So I don’t understand why a 27 week baby would be lost or terminated! That is just horrible! I am crying for you and your baby! May God watch over you, and I believe in my heart that your baby is in heaven watching over you as well!

Thank you!! When I saw my baby I lost it. He was fully grown. He was 1 kg. I took my report to a public hospital and they said they save 22 week old babies and they didn’t understand why they couldn’t save my son!
They kept pulling him out of me when he wasn’t in the right position. His arm and shoulder was stuck and it went blue! My mom and friend in the delivery room witnessed my little baby’s hand go blue.
I don’t want my baby’s life to go in vain. I want justice. That’s all I want. I hope someone can help me.

Bottom-line is this, my Jazeera flights to Dubai are full of people that appear to be going there for healthcare. I, myself, have a doctors appointment on Wednesday and Thursday in Dubai. There are stories there also, like everywhere, but the ‘system’ in Dubai is recognizing that there are negligence cases with doctors practicing there, but at least you can find a competent doctor. Not impressed with the doctors that I have seen in Kuwait, they are more like medical clerks than doctors – there is a high degree of unprofessionalism. So why build 5 new hospitals if the country seems to be unable to attract qualified and competent doctors – just sayin Kuwait?

actually no, its a very long hectic-no-solution-process. Kuwait has does not have a law like in other countries that protects patients from medical negligence. Countries that have laws and regulations covering medical negligence do because their medical doctors are covered by insurance which covers their asses when a law suit is brought up. here in kuwait unfortunately we dont have a governing body that regulates such things. Im sorry for the lady who lost her baby, you should bring this to the media, the media might be more helpful than the legal system.

I’m not sure if there’s any specific govt or private body that deals medical negligence.

i think you the lady should sue the hospital.

my dads friend lost one of his twin baby some 17-18 yrs back.. he sued them and then beat the shit out of the Dr. i cant really recall the result though..

I’m sure no compensation is gonna bring the baby back.. but somebody has to do sumthing to prevent such cases in future.

Beating doctors is ignorant as fuck, loads of doctors do their job and do it well and beating them up just makes them reluctant to treat anyone.

For you it may look ignorant..

but what will you do when the person responsible for the death of your baby girl is in front of you?

i didnt say he beat up every Dr he mat on his way.

Still ignorant as fuck. He had no right touching the doctor. He did not intentionally kill the child. It’s bad enough he has to live with knowing he culdve been responsible for someone’s death.

I just asked my dad, who is a lawyer, and said that there is no steps to do before filing suit, so I guess you should do just that.

I am sorry for your loss, and good luck!

Is there a lawyer he can suggest who is accustomed to medical claims and medixal malpractice / negligence? Your help is appreciated.

I’ll rather fly out abroad than get medical care in Kuwait. Not sure where some of these so called
‘medical professionals” qualified from.

Clearly you have some issues with Kuwaiti community, ( Deseret thinking ) why such resist remarks. we are all the same, it just happens that we are born in different places.

@SF am very sorry for your loss and wish that you have justice.

the medico-legal aspect of healthcare is very poor in kuwait thats granted, however, u can always sue. I work in a hospital and one of the consultants there is facing prison time ( an no the consultant is not an expat) so suing is an option if u believe u have the medical and legal grounds so i suggest consulting an independent doctor and a lawyer to give u their opinion. and btw for emergencies government hospitals r ur best bet not private as they r all polyclinics not prepared to deal with emergencies unlike gov hospitals ( yes as shit as they r).

One person commits a crime, people of the whole country are to blame. I accept there is no proper organization nor there is any proper framework but…One Kuwaiti says something…all the Kuwaitis are blamed…thats not right! There are good and bad elements in every country. We get to see more here coz its a small country.

” one criminal = all criminal” Philosophy needs to change.

SF… so sorry for your loss.

Nothing in this world will compensate for the loss , but the Almighty Lord will continue to give you strength to endure this pain.

If you don’t mind, can you mention the name of the Private Hospital ?

Dear Neo, thank you for your best wishes. Appreciate it. I am still not sure how I am going to go forward with finding justice. And I don’t want to put up the name of the hospital on line as I don’t want the hospital in any way to be prepared when someone comes knocking on their door. I heard that hospitals can change records to protect themselves. So if you don’t mind I don’t want to disclose the name of the hospital here yet. I will post about it in detail the name of the hospital, the doctors, everything – but just not yet Neo. Hope you understand.

Sorry for your loss but there aren’t medical negligence rules in Kuwait like in the states. My husband had some cortizone injections put into his right thumb by a doctor at Al-Seef (I will never go there again) and he injected it into the wrong area and now my husband has no use of his thumb. He can’t even get his file because it’s against the law to take the hospital file. There is a british guy who had surgery at Al-Seef and he got a bacteria infection and they had to cut a hole in his stomach and have skin grafts afterward, now he has no belly button and a huge scare accross his chest, he had to go to the Phillipines to finish the surgery, he went to Al-Seef and took his file as evidence for his lawsuit. I told my husband to make an appointment and run off with his file….what else can you do?

Dear SF ,

I did a little research after reading your post and I came up with the following contact.. See if it helps.. I’ll try finding more such firms that can help you out… Please don’t give up !

Taher Group Law Firm
Kuwait, Kuwait
Corporate, Litigation, Banking, Oil, Labor and Medical Malpractice Law Firm in Kuwait
 +965 22 552591

Dear SF, as is evident, we’re all with you on this and wish you all the best. Very very sorry for your loss, and I hope your fight (which may be long and frustrating) gets you the desired result.

I for one would like to thank all the people out here who’ve been helping you.

Please keep updating us or at least update Mark so that he may post it on the blog.

Good luck.

Dear SF

I just have to say that I am so sorry for your loss. My heart absolutely breaks for you. I am so sorry that this happened and may God Almighty soothe your heart.

Dear SF

I just have to say that I am so sorry for your loss. My heart absolutely breaks for you. I am so sorry that this happened and may God Almighty soothe your heart.

Thank you everyone for your wishes and for all that you are trying to help. My little baby who is in heaven will be smiling down for sure. God bless you all. May his death not go in vain and may justice prevail.

My baby suffered and died. The umbilical cord was pinched several times and any medical professional will know that is the only life line to a baby. In addition, they tried to grab and pull anything and so pulled his hand. His hand was stuck and went blue. He really suffered. They not only didn’t give him a chance to live, they killed him. I want justice for his death. May God see my heart and show me the way.

Iam sorry for UR loss. As a father of two kids my moral support will be there with U.

Cheer Up girl!! dont loose your faith and fight against it. Sometiems you may lose but at the end of the day you can say that I did whatever I could do..

you can sue the hospital–many people have done it and gotten justice, just make sure you have a lawyer who is not afraid to stand up to the owners
sorry for your loss and your horrible experience

@SF
I am a doctor with all respect to all the above but what you have to do is to ask for medical report with all investigations lab and sonar plus all follow up visits to your antenatal care clinic
1st show all this to an Obstetrician whom you trust asking his opinion and if he decide that there is malpractice or negligence
then submit your compliant to MOH
wait for there reply
sometime professional opinion will help to clarify the issue especially 27 weeks gestation is very sensitive issue and carry a lot of debates

Thank you Dr. Hossam. I have the reports however, they changed it. They said the delivery was smooth. They didnt mention anything about the pinching of the umbilical cord, the hand and shoulder being stuck and said I delivered a baby who suffered bradycardia. They said the position was head down, where as during delivery they kept saying, the baby is not in the right position, the baby is transverse.
Now these are terms I got to know listening to them talk, I am not from a medical background.
How will someone hear me when everything written in the report supports the doctor?
Apart from a picture of my blue baby I have no other proof. And also the picture they might say is “photoshopped” What do I do?

Very very sorry for your loss, being a mother i know how it feels.
You should disclose the name of the Dr and the hospital, to save other babies from this butcher.
Let all know who he/she is,, his medical career will be ruined and the death of your child will save millions of other kids.
A piece of advice from a mother, i know it is too hard to move on espicially when i am sure you would have done all the baby shopping..try to join a support group, and try to change your life bit by bit. Or else you will suffer from heavy depression which will kill you slowly.

@SF
I am a neonatologist and usually we have such problems with obstetricians and day to day fight for legal responsibility of such complications and each team trying to blame the other but we has our own ways to monitor and document each step in babys life in utero at delivery and post delivery
to proof and protect baby and parents rights as well protecting ourselves from receiving sick baby due to delivery probelm
I am in Canada for short trip back early next week
you may contact me I may give you useful advise or even I can clear your mind if I feel that what was done comply with the standard of practice
I feel sorry and understand very well and appreciate what you feel for your loss but at the end you has to go out of this and should not stay long in your greave
believe me who knows what was wrong with this baby and could suffer whole of his life sometimes we feel that God blessing is great
my email is [email protected]
please feel free to contact me

@SF
I’m truly very sorry to hear about your loss. May Allah swt give you the strength and courage to overcome this loss.
And inshallah I hope you get justice for this medical negligence.

Sorry, but with regards to the medical profession, Kuwait specializes in Death. I would never seek medical assistance in Kuwait apart from the common cold. Any country that does not have clear laws and regulations for malpractice allows doctors to get away with murder- especially in a country which relies heavily on “It is the will of God”.

Thank you for your kind words of comfort. Having said it is the will of God, I can’t just sit back and watch while this same doctor continues to practice in the hospital.
Probably this doctor has had many mistakes in the past and because no one did anything, babies might continue to die. My little baby was fine, healthy, strong heart beat. The mode of delivery chosen was to treat it as an abortion because to the doctor the baby was only 25 weeks and wouldn’t survive. That was NOT HER CALL TO MAKE. A DOCTOR SAVES LIVES – saves lives of a murderer, a rapist, a theif; why was my baby not given the same chance? That’s all I am asking!

I am wondering if there is any doctor who is willing to write an official medical report with the details I have, with the experiences I went thru, after talking to the witnesses in the delivery room and after seeing the picture of the baby. After having heard everything, can a doctor write a medical report to state what really happened?
Please let me know. Email me on: [email protected]

My deepest sympathies to you.I am truly heartbroken for your loss.Trust in God and stay strong.Hope the wrong doers will be brought to justice.

SF sorry just continued reading and realized what happened in your case. I am truly sorry for your loss.
1. I read above that the doctors had falsified documents? Now that is DEFINITELY illegal and all involved could lose their jobs.
2. If they stated that your baby had bradycardia (slow heartbeat) that should’ve shown up on the CTG (The thing they had wrapped around your belly during the delivery) and so if they’re lying, any doctor will be easily able to pick it up by just looking at the records. And if your baby did have bradycardia and they noticed it early during labor – they should’ve progressed to C-section as cutting off oxygen supply to the baby can lead to serious complication such as HIE or death.
3. If your baby was transverse at the time of labor – they would have had to do a C-section. But I think I saw above you stated the head was out (and wrapped around the umbilical cord – which is actually quite common) but one shoulder and arm was stuck? So that would mean that the baby was in proper lie during delivery. But I have to say it’s strange that a Premature baby had their shoulder stuck – that’s a thing you only see with big babies (that weigh 4+KG)
4. You mention the Dr wrote in the charts that you had an abortion – any delivery past 24weeks is NOT an abortion – so unless you signed papers saying you wanted an abortion – that Dr could get in trouble just for using the wrong terms in a medical chart.

I think your best option would be to talk to an obstetrician and a neonatologist and go through the labor and post-natal management of your pregnancy. The obstetrician is responsible for the labor but once the baby is out – it is up to the neonatologist to resuscitate your baby and keep him alive. So if no-one made an effort to do that – it would be the neonatolgists fault (that being said – the obstetrician SHOULD have contacted the neonatology team to make sure they were present for your labor as they KNEW that you were 27weeks and that your baby was premature)
For all we know – there could have been unavoidable complications that meant your child could not be resuscitated. Obstetricians get sued all the time overseas because the general public don’t understand that some complications are unavoidable and it wasn’t the Drs fault.
But that fact that the doctors took no time to explain everything to you just breaks my heart! I truly hope all of this gets sorted and that you find peace of mind and that if the Drs were responsible they get penalized.

People going to medical profession purely based on monetary greed rather than passion is the worst thing that can happen.A lot of Egyptians working here in Kuwait do just that.I can swear that sometimes I feel that I got more medical knowledge than the person examining me at one of the govt. hospitals.

To talk about pharmacy’s representative is a complete different story seems like all they ever did for homework was to memorize the names of medicines.
Sometimes one has to literally point out the medicine on the shelf because they simply don’t understand the names of medicines in English.

deepest sympathy for your loss…..you could write your experience …naming the doctor and the hospital… .publish it on on facebook and ass everybody else tos hare it .. publish it on you tube..contact bloggers .. write in newpapers…abt the hospital….publish fliers about ti and as someone to secretly distribute it outside the hospital….. make a police complaint if possible abt it …. talk to a lawyer .. sue the hospital….write to individual community websites and blogs …. make it a mission … ask your friends to post it as a fb status etc .. i have never done it … but i gues social media is powerfulll…..if you rightully beleive you ahve been wronged … then your case needs to be heard …

Very interesting topic and very interesting points of view. I think it’s very difficult to determine malpractice in Kuwait for a number of reasons. The two primary ones are:

1) For what ever reason malpractice, bad outcome, bad bedside manner and poor prognosis all seem to mean the same thing to people and by people I mean doctors, nurses, patients and family members.

2) The legal system isn’t in touch with the medical field and as a result doesn’t have the required expertise within that field to cover malpractice in a “fair” manner.

There are numerous solutions when the legal system is imperfect. I’d be more than happy to write a quick post on it seeing as the comment box doesn’t really work all that well for something this complex.

My wife was fighting for her life. She had undergone surgery for stage four colon cancer that had spread to her liver. The surgeon was fantastic and successful in removing all visible signs of cancer from her body. After her second chemo treatment at KCCC, her doctor had her undergo a high contrast CT scan. The report said that she had consolidation in the lower lobes of both lungs and recommended clinical follow up. The initial prognosis was pneumonia. Her oncologist withheld the report and chose to dismissed the CT scan report and continued on with my wife’s chemo treatment. The bottom line is that she has lost the use of 70% of her lung functions. She is tied to an oxygen bottle. her life is a shell of what it was before. Another doctor from a different hospital told us that if the oncologist had followed up with the CT report in a timely fasion, the damage to her lungs could have beeen reversed. As is, the damage is permanent. The fibrosis is too well spread. she has very little time left due to the oncologist’s decision to ignore the CT report. Tell me that there is something that I can do. She has two beautiful daughters. Their father died from a congenital heart problem. Loosing their mother due to ignorance is unforgivaable!

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