UAE | Health

Woman's hope to remarry dashed after 'botched' liposuction

woman seeking a new life in Dubai upon escaping Iraq failed to remarry after an allegedly failed liposuction resulted in her abdomen being disfigured.

  • By Bassam Za'za', Staff Reporter
  • Published: 19:06 November 26, 2007
  • Gulf News

Dubai: A woman seeking a new life in Dubai upon escaping Iraq failed to remarry after an allegedly failed liposuction resulted in her abdomen being disfigured.

The 40-year-old Iraqi woman (who asked to remain unnamed), is a mother of two daughters - whose father died ten years ago. She flew to Dubai because she was about to marry someone who was supposed to secure her and her daughters' future.

"The doctor promised to perform a laser liposuction but after the operation I was left with an inverted T-scar disfigurement and swelling in my abdomen. Doctors told me it's a permanent deformity," the woman told Gulf News outside court yesterday.

The Dubai Civil Court on Monday referred the woman's civil lawsuit to a three-doctor-panel for a reinvestigation. She reportedly accused a Dubai-based medical centre and its physician, who carried out the liposuction, of ethical wrongdoing and medical malpractice.

Criminal complaint

Ali Al Kaabi, the uncle of a young Emirati national bride who died after a liposuction done by the same doctor, said: "We lodged a criminal complaint against the doctor at Al Ain police who will be coordinating with Dubai police to carry out the required procedures. My relative did her liposuction in Dubai."

The Iraqi woman's lawyer Mohammad Al Shaiba, of Al Bahr Advocates and Legal Consultants, said: "An Emirati woman also approached me to take legal action against the same doctor who she reportedly accused of malpractice following a liposuction."

In the Iraqi woman's lawsuit, Al Shaiba said, his client is seeking Dh500,000 in moral, emotional, medical and financial compensation against her damages.

"My hopes to have a new life got terminated following this incident. I read a newspaper advertisement which said the centre and the doctor does liposuction using advanced laser equipment. The doctor advised me with a liposuction and abdominoplasty with laser to avoid any scar and at the same time he would correct an old scar of previous laparotomy using laser. He asked for Dh22,000," said the woman.

The Iraqi woman complained to the Dubai Department of Health and Medical Services (Dohms) which assigned a panel of doctors to investigate her complaint.

Dohms's investigation committee said: "Operation site needs correction. The patient was insufficiently informed as she thought the doctor would use a laser machine and she wouldn't have any scar. The doctor's advertisement is misleading. There was no mismanagement from the technical point of view of the operation or its outcome. The doctor ethically misbehaved by ignoring the patient's complaint of the outcome."

Dohms's committee, which included three doctors and a legal consultant recommended rectifying the scar and 'removing the doctor's advertisment which caused confusion to the public'

Al Shaiba handed a copy of Dohms' s report to the Civil Court which reconvenes next month.

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