As the government begins to combat the issue of sexual harassment in this country, there is another major issue that must not be ignored. That of the horrendous medical system that is in Egypt.
Horror stories surround us on a regular basis, but two of the most recent accounts seem to stand out and are having a heavy effect on the Egyptian people and perhaps even the government.
When the sexual assault victim in Tahrir was rescued from her harassers, in attempt to save her life, she was taken to three hospitals – public and private – in the Cairo area, and all refused to admit her until a 10,000 LE insurance was paid. In situations like this, I find it utterly ridiculous how our health care system cannot immediately admit a patient suffering from severe trauma for treatment and instead expects her – as she loses her life – to have 10,000 pounds on her just in case a catastrophe happens.
Moving on to example number two: A young girl, Heba El Ayouti, was admitted to the Nile Badrawi Hospital for a routine test and came out of it tragically losing her life due to the negligence of the doctor at hand.
According to their Wikipedia page, the following is what happened:
Nile Badrawi Hospital is a private hospital that was established in 1985 in Cairo, Egypt. The hospital hosts 138 beds, 7 operating rooms, but highly incompetent doctors.
On May 11th, 2014 Heba Al Ayouty went to the hospital for an investigative scan that requires the use of contrast dye, her doctor – Dr. Mohamed Salah – instead injected her with a sterilising chemical which resulted in tears and burns in Heba’s internal organs. Dr. Mohamed Salah, in an attempt to avoid any responsibility, did not disclose this fatal error to Heba’s family, and claimed that her screams of agony were “a psychological condition” and proceeded to return all fees and paperwork to the family, thus eliminating any evidence of Heba’s case ever being in Nile Badrawi or of her ever being in his care. Due to this error, Heba had to undergo several operations and procedures – both in other private hospitals in Egypt and in Germany – in an attempt to save her life, an attempt that was tragically unsuccessful. Heba El Ayouty lost her life on June 9th at the tender age of 26.
In an attempt to reach out to the media and gain more momentum and exposure about the issue, a Facebook page has been created in the memory of the young girl, chronicling all that has happened as well as the below conversation with her twin sister:
Cases like these are not rare in a country like Egypt. Unfortunately, though, the system doesn’t protect the patient as there is no way to hold the doctors accountable for their actions.
Malpractice laws and trials are far and few in between, giving doctors the leeway to treat their fellow human beings and citizens as guinea pigs without an ounce of regret if something goes wrong.
The medical institutions that are in place in Egypt are a disaster and if we don’t fight for the change that is much needed, countless helpless lives are being lost without anyone to hold accountable.
This is UNACCEPTABLE!
WE SAID THIS: Check out Jackie Khoury’s assessment on how terrible Egypt’s private hospitals are here.
