CAIRO: Five-year-old Galal Hisham Galal died Saturday from excessive bleeding, after being left to wait for two hours at Cairo's El Demerdash hospital, the press reported. His transfer was requested by El Matareya Hospital which lacked the necessary equipment to treat him. Some 13 days ago, Galal had his tonsils removed at El Khazendar hospital. Dr. Mohammed Nasser, manager of El Khazendar, refused to comment to The Daily Star Egypt on whether or not there were complications during the surgery which might have eventually led to Galal s death. At the present time we are not allowed to disclose any information to the press until the syndicate's investigations are complete, Nasser told The Daily Star Egypt. According to an employee at El Matareya hospital who preferred to remain anonymous, the doctors were unsure of the cause of the bleeding. The medical instrument known as the endoscope, required to perform an endoscopy, was not available at El Matareya hospital. This is why they suggested taking the child to El Demerdash Hospital. The employee told The Daily Star Egypt that the fact that the hospital does not have the necessary equipment is a disaster and is the reason why El Matareya hospital was helpless in dealing with the case. This equipment could have saved Galal. The Ministry of Health should provide more funds to buy all the necessary equipment, the employee said. These are peoples' lives that are at risk, he added. This was an innocent child, who needed help, but died waiting for it, he said. It took the ambulance six hours to get here, the source added. When they finally showed up, the driver refused to take the boy to El Demerdash hospital unless his parents paid him, disregarding the child s serious condition. Al-Masry Al-Youm reported that when Galal reached El Demerdash hospital along with his parents, they had to wait for two hours for the hospital to admit him. El Demerdash hospital could not be reached for comment. Due to the gravity of his condition, Galal's parents tried to take him to another hospital so as not to waste more time, but the driver again refused to take them to another hospital, the press reported. But the driver reportedly said that there are direct orders from the Minister of Health prohibiting any ambulance driver from transferring a patient already admitted to a certain hospital to another one. The Ministry of Health had not yet made a statement on the case at time of press.
