Reem sent home after three years of suffering

Sharjah: Three years ago, she walked into Al Qasimi Hospital to give birth and celebrate life.

She was evicted from the hospital on Wednesday. She was motionless and unaware she had twins.

Reem, 30, a Palestinian doctor, gave birth to twins Gassan and Bisan three years ago. Complications following the Caesarean section paralysed her and she slipped into a coma. Gulf News earlier reported that investigations revealed malpractice at Al Qasimi Hospital led to her paralysis.

"My daughter went to give birth in hospital. She was walking. She was healthy and beautiful. They sent her back home in an ambulance motionless, in a coma," Umm Ramzi, Reem's mother, told Gulf News.

Umm Ramzi, who refused to go to hospital, to receive her daughter said she cannot bear to see her in this condition. "Mothers are usually overjoyed when their daughters have children, but what happened with my daughter has torn my heart," she said.

Umm Ramzi said the hospital asked the family to bring back the worn out, damaged bed which was given to Reem last week. "We gave the bed back because Gulf News readers donated a bed to us. Readers will give her a medical mattress too," she said.

Umm Ramzi said the hospital gave Reem four small cans of food, costing Dh5, to take home, enough for one meal.

A hospital spokesperson told Gulf News yesterday the management had warned Reem's parents that if they did not take her home she would be sent to a special organisation in Abu Dhabi. "The family was told Reem would be sent to the organisation and police would be informed that Reem had been abandoned. We need the bed for another patient," she said.

Last week, the hospital threatened the family to call the police if Reem was not moved out. At the time, Humaid Al Qutami, Minister of Health, intervened and said Reem would not leave the hospital.

Umm Ramzi said Reem's father, who is 60 years old, went in a taxi at 7am to receive his elder daughter on a stretcher.

The father said his heart broke when he saw her. "I was sitting next to her in the ambulance on our way home. I wish I was in her place. I am an old man. I can give her my life," the father said.