Bahrain: Doctors jailed for newborn twins’ death
Bahrain has sentenced a doctor to three years in prison, and two others to one year in jail, and set BD1,000 as bail for each of them to stop the execution after finding them guilty in causing the death of twin babies, contrary to the medical profession’s ethics.
The court acquitted a nurse in the same case, Head of the Ministries and Public Entities Prosecution announced.
Case documents reveal that a man had lodged a complaint indicating that the Salmaniya Medical Complex had proclaimed his twin babies dead and handed them over to him. However, the twins were found to be alive at the time of their burial, so he rushed them back to SMC, who told him that one of them was still alive, and transferred her to the recovery room where she died later.
The Public Prosecution launched an investigation into the case, and reviewed the report of the technical committee to determine the cause of the babies’ death, set up by the National Health Regulatory Authority (NHRA). It also reviewed the report of the forensic doctor, which found out that the twins were born prematurely, and could partially breathe, which would require their urgent transfer to the intensive care unit as long as they were alive. The forensic report concluded that the twins’ life could have been saved if transferred to the intensive care unit immediately.
The committee’s report concluded that the medical staff who dealt with the twins were responsible for their death through the breach of their duties by failing to examine the twins to verify the aspects of life in them and take the necessary medical care towards them.
The Public Prosecution also questioned the medical staff who took turns in dealing with the mother and the twins.
The Public Prosecution leveled the charges against the suspects based on the reports of the NHRA’s committee and the forensic expert, which both proved their responsibility, and referred them to the court, where they stood trial and received the aforementioned verdict.
