Hospital in Sharjah refused to remove my boy's stitches, shocked father says

Sharjah: A hospital in Sharjah refused to remove stitches from a small boy's ear because they did not carry out the work, his father said.

Saif, four, an Iraqi who lives in Sharjah, cut his ear during a visit to Fujairah at the weekend. He had been playing inside his father's car when the door closed on his ear.

"He started bleeding severely. We live in Sharjah and we are not familiar with Fujairah. Some people over there helped us to go to the Fujairah government hospital," the father said, adding that his son had received 10 stitches.

Four hours

"The doctors told us that we needed to remove the stitches after a week at any government hospital in Sharjah," he said.

However, when they went on Wednesday to Kuwaiti Hospital in Sharjah he was told to go to Al Qasimi Hospital.

"I live in Al Nahda in Sharjah and it took me four hours to reach the hospital," he said, adding that hospital staff refused to listen to his son's case.

"I was told that this was not their job and that I had to take him back to Fujairah to remove the stitches," he said, adding that his son had a health card.

"I asked them to just clean the ear and the wound but they refused."

He said the doctors were standing and chatting together.

"They refused even to look at me or at my little son asking me to leave the hospital.

"They said, ‘Take him to Fujairah or to a private clinic,'" he said, adding that he had received directions for a private clinic from a policeman at the hospital.

"I am not asking them to admit the boy into hospital so he will occupy a bed."

The hospital said that the father had arrived at the emergency section when the hospital was closed.

"The case of the boy was not urgent and he can take him anywhere to remove the stitches," an official from Al Qasimi Hospital told Gulf news.