The latest: developments in the Salt Hospital case

Jordan

Published: 2021-05-30 15:42

Last Updated: 2024-03-28 12:32


The latest: developments in the Salt Hospital case
The latest: developments in the Salt Hospital case

A public prosecution witness in the oxygen case at Al-Hussein Salt New Hospital told the Amman Court Sunday that the oxygen was suddenly cut off from patients in the intensive care unit for those infected with COVID-19, and it was not gradual.

March 13, a technical defect in the Al-Hussein New Salt Hospital caused patients in the intensive care unit (ICU) to be cut off from oxygen, which led to the death of seven Jordanians and outrage in the Kingdom.

The witness claimed during the 18th public session, that proof that the defect was sudden is that all patients in the department, totaling to seven, needed oxygen at once.

Additionally, he indicated that the internal resident doctor in the hospital working in the intermediate care department for coronavirus patients, started his work the day before the accident and continued until 10am on the day of the accident (March 13), and his colleague from the intensive care department called on him to ask for help with patient resuscitation at 5:30am on the day of the accident.

He added that he resuscitated the first unconscious patient and an oxygen cylinder was installed for him, then he moved to the other patients, but a number of them died due to the depletion of oxygen.

The witness noted the vastness of the expansion of coronavirus departments, claiming the extent of the expansion resulted in a lack of nursing staff and doctors to take care of patients.

He noted he was not aware of the vastness of the COVID-19 department expansion.

One of the defense attorneys objected to the testimony given by the witness before the prosecution, which followed special circumstances due to his infection with COVID-19 at the time. However, the court decided to dismiss the objection, because the law permitted the Public Prosecution and the court to follow these circumstances in order to achieve justice.

The court continued hearing witnesses, also hearing the testimony of another witness in the case, a resident physician, thus raising the number of witnesses heard so far to 32 out of 49 witnesses.

The Al-Hussein Salt New Hospital tragedy claimed the lives of nine, with seven who were confirmed to have died from oxygen shortages.