The body of a Bangladeshi worker has been left to decompose at a private hospital in Jeddah of Saudi Arabia as the medical bill for his treatment is unpaid.
The deceased was identified as Abul Hussein Noor Zaman, 42, a worker of National Water Company (NWC).
The brother of the deceased, Muhammad Saraah, refused to accept the body, and then complained to the Ministry of Health of the country, Saudi Gazette reported.
Bangladeshi workers are working in a Saudi construction site. A good number of Bangladeshi migrant workers are staying in the country
The body had decomposed after being left in the morgue of the hospital for 10 days.
Saraah said: “My brother was diagnosed with a strange disease and was admitted to a private hospital two months ago.
“Several symptoms appeared, but he was wrongly diagnosed."
Saraah claimed that his brother was finally diagnosed with AIDS and he died on June 11, 2014.
Saraah blamed the hospital for neglecting and refusing to hand over his brother's body until the remaining amount of the bill had been paid, according to Kuwait based Al-Watan daily.
Saraah said: “My brother was being treated in the hospital and covered by the medical insurance system, which allowed medical expenses of up to SR30,000. “However, the cost for his treatment including medicine, tests and checkups did not exceed SR17,000, but the hospital neglected him until he died.”
Saraah said the hospital set a condition that SR5,000 had to be paid before the body could be released. When his brother’s colleagues at the NWC found out about the incident, they informed Jeddah Health Affairs Director Dr Sami Badawood. The health affairs director is believed to have only issued a order to all private hospitals to refurbish the morgues without issuing directives on Zaman’s case.
Saraah filed a complaint at the Ministry of Health on June 24 and directives were issued to send the body to Bangladesh. When the vehicle to transport the body arrived, paramedics refused to take the body because it had decomposed, with only the head remaining intact. The forensic medicine department issued a report saying that the whole body had decomposed and nearly 70 percent of it had been lost due to insufficient cooling in the morgue and lack of monitoring by morgue technicians, Saraah said.