Combating common medical mistakes
Medical mistakes are becoming increasingly common in Yemen.
The symposium aimed to boost common medical sense among students of the Medicine College and to enhance the scientific and practical levels of the medical field.
Most of the common medical mistakes in Yemen happen from a lack of experience or efficiency, performing medical operations using uncertified methods, giving inaccurate results during checkups and prescribing medicine unprofessionally, which could cause deaths, according to doctor Khalid Al-Mo’aid, a professor at the Medicine College of Sana’a University.
Al-Mo’aid said the importance of knowing the reasons behind medical mistakes is to discover suitable solutions to eliminate mistakes. He said giving false results is one of the most common reasons.
He also said some doctors depend on other doctors who have little experience to perform their duties, which could lead to medical errors.
Doctor Ali Al-Miri, vice dean of the Medicine College, said, “Students of medicine have to be the core of change in practicing medicine professionally.”
About the role of law in medical mistakes, Abdulrahman Barman, a lawyer, said the issue of medical mistakes is very sensitive.
“It is regrettable that there is no official law for medical mistakes, though there are many complaints to lawyers concerning medical mistakes.”
“We resort to the Yemeni law of crimes number 245, which stipulates that whoever makes a medical mistake affecting patients negatively or causing them permanent disabilities must pay blood money or be imprisoned,” Barman said. “However, in international medical laws, the medical license is taken from the doctor, and he is sent to prison for three years.”
Medical mistakes are increasingly common in Yemeni hospitals, including hiding patients’ files, not revealing the truth and putting pressure on administration employees—even threatening their dismissal if they give any details, which makes them hide the truth, according to Barman.
Some of the cases exposed to medical mistakes that led to much suffering were presented during the symposium.
Yusif Al-Ameri, 31, was given incorrect results during a check-up and, consequently, was given the wrong medicine. He ended up in the Intensive Care Unit.
Abu Mohammed brought his daughter to a hospital because she had a stomachache. After checking her, the father was told his daughter was pregnant. He beat her black and blue, only to learn that the result was that of another woman. His daughter was not pregnant.
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