Doctors, Nurses in Najran Baby Mixup Face Deportation

Doctors, Nurses in Najran Baby Mixup Face Deportation
Arab News

NAJRAN, 10 March 2008 — A committee set up to investigate the accidental switching of two new-born babies — one Turkish and the other Saudi — at a government hospital in Najran more than four years ago has called for the deportation of a doctor and two nurses responsible for the blunder.

The Egyptian doctor and two nurses — one Indian and the other Filipino — will be prevented from returning to the Kingdom to work in the health sector. A third nurse, who is a Saudi national, has been fined SR4,000.

The committee also provided the Health Affairs in Najran with a list of precautions that they need to take to avoid such mistakes in the future, Al-Eqtisadiah newspaper reported yesterday.

Late last year, Arab News reported on the case of Ali and Yaqub, who were mistakenly swapped at birth in September 2003 at the King Khaled General Hospital in Najran. Ali, born to a Turkish couple, was mistakenly given to a Saudi couple and their son, Yaqub, was given to the Turkish couple.

Yusuf Cucu, father of the Turkish child, told Arab News previously that his son was born by caesarian section at the hospitl on Sept. 7, 2003.

“When I asked them for my baby, a nurse went to the delivery room and brought us Yaqub. I was shocked when I saw the baby because it didn’t have any of our features,” said Cucu.

“I told his mother about what I saw. She said she knew about it but ruled out anything strange saying that his brown color could be inherited from his uncle,” said the father, adding that a nurse at the delivery room reassured them that this was indeed their baby.

Cucu said that at one point, he was almost convinced that the child was illegitimate. Furious that his wife may have committed adultery, he had even considered killing her.

Later, following questions from their family in Turkey, the couple underwent DNA tests, which proved that Yaqub was not their biological son. Cucu returned to the Najran hospital where the baby was delivered to clear up the matter. He also wrote a letter of complaint to the governor of Najran. Consequently, the Turkish and Saudi families were asked to undergo DNA tests in the Kingdom, which proved that the children had been swapped.

The two families have received SR600,000 in compensation from Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah. Both families currently live in villas adjacent to each other and are receiving social and psychological help to prepare the two boys to return to their biological parents.