7 female inmates die at rehab center for girls in two months

DAMMAM: Sources at one of the rehab centers of the Ministry of Labor and Social Development in the east of the Kingdom said they witnessed seven inmates die within two months this year.
They say that the reason behind the deaths has to do with the low level of care these patients receive from the staff of the center.
A consultant, who preferred anonymity, said he has worked at one of the rehab centers for females in Dammam for more than three years, and has not noticed any injuries on the inmates or anything unusual, except during the last five months, in the light of the launch of the new “Hima” project to develop the rehab and handicap centers in the Eastern Province. He added the project attracted employees specialized in psychological and social analysis in Dammam, but in effect, it created a lack of care in looking after female patients and resulted in the deaths.
He said he only mentioned the seven cases in two months and suspects that one of them had a broken pelvis, and a woman in her 40s was in bad condition relating to inflammation, sores and pus, and he recommended that she be transferred to another hospital.
But he said the right mechanism for doing so was missing and three cases died at within one month despite the warnings that these patients should be transferred to another hospital.
The father of Sarah Al-Khalidi, the girl who died in the Comprehensive Rehab Center in Dammam, attacked the staff. He said the staff don’t give care to the patients and maintain secrecy over what happens at the center from the visitors.
Al-Khalidi said the parents don’t complain because they fear this will reflect negatively on their daughters. He said the staff believe that the parents send their daughters to the center to get rid of them, and that this is what causes them to be careless and inattentive.
Of his daughter, he said, “I took her to the center about two years ago in 2014, and she was suffering from atrophy of the brain and disability, and I visited her daily.
But I left her for two to three days because of family commitments.” He then went back to see her and saw bruises and “the staff said she probably fell off the table or something like that, and I said I want to see her but they said she was sleeping.” After insisting on seeing her, the staff showed her to him fully clothed to conceal any injuries.
He added that sometimes he sees her hair wet and smells perfume on her person to conceal any signs of neglecting her hygiene, but when they took her back inside the center she used to scream. He continued, “Four days before she died I noticed she couldn’t breathe and she coughed a lot, so I decided to take her to the doctor, but they refused to let me take her saying they would take good care of her.” He demanded to see the director of the center but was denied this meeting with them saying she was in a meeting.
He said on Jan. 1, 2016, “I received a call from them saying Sarah was in the children’s hospital and I came rushing and found her with a cleaning lady who didn’t speak Arabic nor English, and I learned her situation was critical. Her lungs were inflamed and there were blood clots in her nose and she only had hours to live.” He blamed her death on the Damman Rehab Center for Girls because of their carelessness and even violence, and called for punishing those behind the deaths.