cdb7e24a90458210VgnVCM200000e66411acRCRDapproved/thenational/Articles/Migration/2009-Q4Unlicensed 'doctor' jailed after baby is left disabledbdb7e24a90458210VgnVCM200000e66411ac____A women who posed as a doctor was sentence to a year in prison after a baby she delivered was left with severe disabilities<p>ABU DHABI // A Ukrainian woman who posed as a doctor and worked in a private hospital without a medical licence was sentenced to one year in prison and fined Dh10,000 by an Abu Dhabi court today after a baby she delivered was left with permanent disabilities . The private hospital she worked in was found guilty of negligence, after the Court of Misdemeanors ruled that it failed to provide the appropriate equipment for the baby's delivery. The hospital was fined a total of Dh100,000 for both the negligence charge and knowingly employing the woman without a licence. The Forensics Unit of the Abu Dhabi Judicial Department submitted a seven-page document to the court, where it detailed the medical errors that led to Ola's condition.</p> <p>However, for Dr Ali Aljabiri, whose daughter and wife were the victims of what the court called "severe negligence", the case represents more than a medical error or even a criminal matter. Dr Aljabiri, an Iraqi television producer who has been in the UAE for nearly four years, described while waiting outside the courtroom for the court to deliver the verdict how the family's ordeal began when he took his wife, then 36, to the private hospital for consultation when she was nine months pregnant with a girl.   "On January 20, the doctor [the defendant] gave my wife an injection to help expedite the pregnancy. She had no birth pains by that point," Dr Aljabiri said.    </p> <p>"Through the ultrasound, the hospital determined the infant was 4.16kg, which we later found out should have been grounds for a cesarian section," Dr Aljabiri said. At 6pm his wife gave birth to her fourth child, who the couple named Ola. When Ola was delivered, she was not crying, a sign that she needed oxygen.  "There was no neonatal unit or incubator. At birth, it's such a critical stage that the lack of oxygen led to permanent damage," Dr Aljabiri said.  Today Ola suffers from atrophy and paralysis of the brain. She is completely paralysed, unable to speak or eat and must be fed by a feeding tube attached to her stomach.</p> <p>Hours after her birth, Ola was taken by ambulance to the Corniche Hospital where she was given proper medical attention, but by that point it was too late.  "For the next four months, my family and I took shifts to be with Ola 24 hours a day. She went from the Corniche Hospital to Sheikh Khalifa Medical City where she received two operations back to back," Dr Aljabiri said.    While this ordeal was unfolding, Dr Aljabiri could think of nothing else but the health of his child. </p> <p>"I was encouraged to file a report on the grounds that there was no proper medical facility at the hospital. The Health Authority of Abu Dhabi investigated the case and that's when we found out [about the defendant]," Dr Aljabiri said.  In June the case against the hospital and the woman who delivered Ola was brought before the Court of Misdemeanors. The woman was immediately arrested and held pending a verdict. The time she has served will count towards her sentence.  The court based its judgment on both the Federal Penal Code, for which she received the jail sentence, and the Medical Liability Law, for which she was fined Dh10,000.</p> <p>Dr Aljabiri said he would be appealing against the one-year sentence on the grounds that it was not long enough. "She should have received the maximum of three years," he told reporters immediately after the verdict. "I am confident in the justice system here but the pain this has caused my family is worth more than one year." Ola is with her mother at a hospital in Sweden, where she is being treated in the hope of improving her situation. Legal representatives of the hospital declined to comment on the case, saying only that they would appeal on the grounds they did not know the doctor was unlicensed. Officials from the hospital declined to comment.</p> <p>As both parties have 30 days to appeal against the verdict, <i>The National</i> is prohibited by law from identifying any of the parties involved in the legal proceedings.  The presiding judge yesterday recommended the case to the Office of the Attorney General, claiming the director of the hospital had committed a criminal offence in knowingly hiring the accused without a licence.  There is also civil lawsuit case pending in Abu Dhabi's Financial Courts, where Dr Al Jabiri is seeking compensation for all the expenses he incurred since the birth of Ola as a result of the hospital's errors. The judgment in this case is expected next month. myoussef@thenational.ae</p> 42,1092YYNATIONAL2009111100000020091111000000100ARhttp://adedit.ad.atl.publicus.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20091111/NATIONAL/9111199569111199562009111110000000020653deb6cb58210VgnVCM100000e56411ac____bdb7e24a90458210VgnVCM200000e66411ac____4a117fdfa2448210VgnVCM100000e56411acRCRD