UAE – 8th November, 2018: The Federal Supreme Court has ordered for fresh hearing in the case of a hospital and its doctors who were convicted of medical negligence during the treatment of a child after birth and causing him blindness.
Court documents stated that the child, who was conceived through artificial insemination and born prematurely, had suffered the loss of sight, particularly in the right eye, because of an alleged medical error, while in the hospital's neonatal intensive care for the premature babies.
The child's mother had undergone an urgent caesarean section in the 25th week of pregnancy at the hospital because of the early placenta detachment.
The boy's parents had filed a lawsuit against the hospital and its medical team, demanding compensation for the material and moral damages they suffered because of their child's loss of vision. Both the Al Ain Court of First Instance and the Appeal Court had ordered the hospital and its medical team to pay Dh10 million in damages to the child's parents after they were found guilty of medical negligence which caused partial blindness to the child.
The hospital and its doctors challenged the ruling at the UAE's top court denying any wrong doing and stressing that they had been wrongly convicted.
The hospital and doctors said that the child, who was born prematurely, was born with the eye illness which affected his sight. The medics argued that a medical report by the technical committee didn't indicate anywhere that there was a medical error. The hospital claimed its doctors didn't do anything wrong.
They said they had earlier presented their defence and supporting evidence to the lower courts but it was not considered.
And after looking into the case, the Supreme Court judge ordered the Appeal Court to have fresh hearing in the case because there was no proper justification in the huge compensation amount awarded to the parents.
Source: https://www.khaleejtimes.com/news/crime-and-courts/top-court-calls-for-fresh-hearing-in-medical-negligence-case