Who would have imagined that a pain in the neck might conceal a dangerous sign that would kill a 20-year-old? Who would believe that a medical student in the last year at the Lebanese University, who worked for years in hospitals, would not find any hospital that would receive her without asking in advance for a “fresh dollar” payment. Samira Ghanem lost her life in a moment, and her family was unable to understand the medical reasons, and in the end, “the burning is great and the shock is greater,” while the Ministry of Health opened an investigation to find out the circumstances of the death.
What happened with Samira is like a fantasy, a nightmare that her family wished to wake up from and deny the news of their daughter’s death, but the reality is painful and what the 20-year-old has lived through is unbelievable. From one hospital to another, Samira kept moving from one emergency room to another until she breathed her last after suffering and an arduous journey that ended in tragedy!
With tears and anguish, her exhausted father answered the phone, he could not speak, the pain was great and the loss was indescribable, it was hard for him to believe that his daughter had left so easily, and that the failure to provide medical assistance was the cause of her deteriorating condition.
Her cousin Karl Massad recounts the details of the suffering Samira experienced before her death by saying to “Al-Nahar” she complained of a simple neck pain and did not neglect it, but went to a public health doctor to consult him. There is nothing to worry about and it’s just “whatever”. However, she insisted on conducting the necessary medical examinations, which revealed the presence of inflammation in the heart muscle, which prompted the medical team at Geitaoui Hospital to request her urgent admission due to the seriousness of the situation.
Her delicate condition required hospitalization quickly. The hospital demanded $2,500, and the family did not have the money, and they could not secure it so quickly. Faced with this reality, the family decided to go to a government hospital to treat their daughter, according to Massad. “It started with Baabda Hospital, which reviewed the medical report, but apologized for not receiving her on the pretext that there are no medical equipment and devices. The parents had no other solution than to transfer her to a hospital. Rafic Hariri, the government, who refused to receive her and did not bother the medical team to examine or look at her.
What Samira went through is painful and harsh. No one came out to the car to reveal her condition, and after she had been laughing for hours, she was without a soul. Massad points out that “she went with them on her feet, and went out to the Geitawi Hospital on her feet, but her condition began to deteriorate after we left Baabda Hospital and reached Rafic Hariri Hospital, where it began to fade in our hands. Her condition could not bear all this waiting and procrastination, and after a quarrel with the workers At the Rafic Hariri Hospital, who told us, “Take her out of the wrong place, and if you don’t like it, complain about the administration.” I was discharged from the hospital after asking for security assistance, because I refused to leave before someone examined her, and the statement issued by the hospital about what happened with Samira is not true.
All the doors were closed in the face of Ghanem’s family, and they had no choice but to return to the starting point. I went to the Geitaoui Hospital after securing $1,000 from friends and family, and was admitted to the emergency room for treatment. She remained under observation, but at five in the morning she gave up, and the hospital informed her family of the news of her death, which was due to a seizure that stopped her heart.
What burns the heart of her family and relatives, as Massad says, is that “she left and will not return, but we are talking today so as not to lose another Samira. What happened to us was harsh, and we were subjected to insults at Rafic Hariri Hospital because we refused to go out, we were not treated well and they refused even to examine Samira in The car left because it did not find someone to help and save her life before they received the money or refused to receive it without valid reasons. We did not know the cause of myocarditis medically and what led to that, knowing that she received 4 doses of the Corona vaccine because she works in hospitals as a trainee. .
On the other hand, the Ministry of Health rushed yesterday, after the communication sites were buzzing with the news of Samira’s death, to issue a statement confirming that “the Medical Care Directorate began an investigation to find out the causes of the death of the young patient S.A. in a Beirut hospital, after she was transferred to the emergency departments in a number of Hospitals in the capital,” adding that “an investigation is underway to determine whether any hospital the patient went to has any negligence, and to build on the matter.”
While the Rafic Hariri Hospital announced that the hospital administration “formed a committee to investigate the circumstances of this case, and narrates what happened in a statement that said: “I attended on 24/08/2022 at eleven o’clock at night, the young woman Samira Azzam accompanied by her father to the emergency of Rafic Hariri University Hospital. , who entered the hospital emergency on his own, where he kept his daughter in the car and did not leave it. The father presented to the medical team a report for his daughter from the Lebanese Jeitaoui Hospital stating that “the patient came to the Jeitaoui Lebanese Hospital because of chest pains, hemorrhages under the skin in the eyes area, and pains in the neck and back.” According to the report, the patient suffered from a high fever a week ago, before arriving at the Lebanese Geitaoui Hospital. The hospital performed an EKG and an ultrasound of the heart, as it was found that her condition is critical and she needs to be admitted to a hospital. Here, the patient’s family decided to transfer her on their own responsibility to another hospital due to their difficult financial conditions, as she was transferred to the Baabda Governmental Hospital, which in turn was unable to receive her because it was not ready with the medical equipment and devices specialized in her condition.”
The statement added, “The medical team at Al-Hariri Hospital asked the father of the young woman to wait a little while finding a place for the patient inside the emergency due to the large number of patients that exceeded the capacity of the emergency department (32 patients), which angered the father, so he decided to leave the hospital emergency to take his daughter again to the hospital. The Lebanese Geitaoui Hospital, where the patient was admitted to intensive care there, and her health condition deteriorated rapidly and she died hours after her admission.