Samir
Al-Saadi, Arab News
JEDDAH, 3 February 2005 —
Some elderly Saudis are being disposed of by their families who dump them off
in front of area hospitals and speed away, leaving doctors furious and
flabbergasted by this bizarre, cruel behavior.
Recently, three separate
families abandoned their parents — and their responsibilities — at King Fahd
Hospital.
In an incident at the
hospital on Tuesday, a woman in her late 80s who was abandoned by her son there
10 days earlier was reunited with him. During her hospital stay, officials tried
several times to get in touch with her family, who denied her existence.
Security guards were able
to trace her taxi-driver son who ditched her at the hospital.
He was recognized as a
regular visitor to the premises, frequently dropping off passengers at the
Intensive Care Unit (ICU) entrance.
The man arrived at the
hospital accompanied by his young son, and when confronted by hospital
officials he denied any relation to the old woman despite her enthusiastic
greetings.
“Waleed,” she cried.
“After checking the man’s
ID we established that, in fact, it was his name,” said the Dr. Abdul Malik
Al-Huti, head of the ICU.
If there was any doubt,
the little boy put it to rest.
“When we brought in the
young child accompanying his father, he took one look at her and said she was
his grandmother.”
After officials had a
long, generally unpleasant discussion with “Waleed,” he reclaimed his mom.
Not all of the elderly are
so lucky.
“Uncle Hamed,” as he’s
called at the hospital, was abandoned during Ramadan and still lies on a King
Fahd Hospital bed. He is blind, emaciated and 87 years old.
Officials have tried to
find a person to contact, but the man has no identification — and no one knows
who left him at the hospital.
“We found one number in
his pocket, which led us to an Arab neighbor who once cared for Hamed, but he
didn’t have the capability to care for him,” a hospital official said.
His neighbors said Ahmad
used to have a son living with him, but the man no longer lives in his house
and has not been seen for a while.
And then there’s the man
who checked in for a checkup who won’t check out.
Hamed Al-Kayyal, a Saudi
in his 50s, has been in the hospital for nearly two months for no medical
reason.
“He refuses to leave and
has caused us lots of problems,” said Dr. Al-Huti. “We have tried to contact
his family many times, but no one cares.”
Dr. Al-Huti authorized
three meals a day for him but told him that doctors would not tend to his
imaginary complaints. That didn’t work too well.
“Somehow he still manages
to get doctors’ attention to give him daily checkups,” Dr. Al-Huti said. “This
phenomenon of abandonment by families of their elders is new in our community,”
he said, “and it is unacceptable to the majority of Saudi society.”
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