Khaleej Times ------- Contaminated Food Likely Cause of Childrens’ Death Amira Agarib
16 June 2009 DUBAI - The Dubai Municipality (DM) is awaiting the lab report on food samples collected from the Al Nahda-based restaurant, but the preliminary report received by the police indicates food contamination, a Dubai Police source told Khaleej Times on Monday. The municipality had shut down the restaurant as a precautionary measure after two children – a seven-year-old girl and her five-year-old brother – died of suspected food poisoning after eating the food supplied by the restaurant. The police source said while the restaurant owner and some other employees were detained, the final report from the General Department of Forensic Services, was still awaited. Earlier, municipality officials said the restaurant will not be allowed to operate unless it gets a clean chit in the municipality’s investigation and lab tests being carried out at the Dubai Central Laboratory. Meanwhile, the mother of the children, who was discharged from a private hospital on Sunday, accused the hospital of negligence. Ann Sophie said the hospital discharged the kids after giving them medicines for stomach pain without doing a medical check-up. “We had our dinner at 7pm on Friday. I didn’t notice anything abnormal in the food as I also ate with them. At night, the kids started to throw up and their situation worsened. Accompanied by our housemaid, I took them to the hospital that is located near my house. In the mean time I, too, started developing the same symptoms,” she said with tears in her eyes. She said that while the hospital admitted her into the ICU, they gave normal medication to the kids without doing a medical check-up. Sophie said she didn’t ask the hospital to discharge the children, but the hospital gave them permission to leave without informing her. She said that after three hours, the children’s condition worsened, so she took them again to the hospital and her son died an hour later. She alleged that the hospital refused to treat her daughter after which she was transferred to the Dubai Hospital. The girl passed away three hours after her brother’s death. The mother said that she didn’t receive the children’s bodies from the General Department of Forensic Medicine. When contacted, a senior representative of the hospital denied the allegations. He said that the children were brought by their mother early on Saturday, after which urine and blood tests were conducted. Around 9am, the doctors gave the mother a choice to either take the kids home or keep them in the hospital as their condition was stable, the representative said. He said that the mother was asked to come back with the kids if there was anything wrong. The mother came back around 1pm and one of the kids was unconscious. The hospital tried to revive him, but in vain. The other child was immediately referred to the Dubai Hospital and an ambulance was provided, the official said. The police source told Khaleej Times the family could take legal action and lodge a separate complaint with the police if they suspect negligence. While Sophie hails from France, the father, Patrick D’souza is an Indian national working with the Emirates airline. [email protected]
