Under the title "Paralysis of the Healthcare Sector in Lebanon Kills Baby Jouri," Sky News reported that the lack of medication and the failure of medical services in Lebanon led to the death of baby Jouri Mazen Al-Sayed from the town of Ainout in Chouf after her body temperature rose due to teething. Jouri was buried on Sunday in Ainout in a solemn funeral, as grief spread across Lebanon for the Lebanese child who had not yet completed her first year of life.
Jouri's aunt, Noha Al-Haj, told Sky News Arabia that Jouri did not suffer from any health problems and that "what hurts the grieving family the most is that the cause of death was trivial (teething)." She added, "After Jouri's temperature rose, her mother gave her a fever reducer, but it did not work. The mother then contacted the specialized doctor, who asked to transfer her to the nearest hospital and provide another medication that might be an antibiotic, which was also unavailable."
She continued, "One of the region's MPs intervened, but it was unsuccessful; no ambulance could reach due to the fuel shortage at the stations. Even if fuel was available and the ambulance managed to arrive, the hospital would not accept the patient, citing a lack of available beds in the children's ward."
Al-Haj mentioned, "All hospitals in Lebanon from north to south were contacted without any result, so Jouri was transferred to a hospital in the nearby town of Mazboud, which turned out not to have a pediatric intensive care unit, and the family headed to the city of Sidon to the south with the accompaniment of a pediatric doctor and an oxygen device, but the child passed away en route to the hospital."
The medical administration of the Mazboud Central Hospital revealed the circumstances of baby Jouri Al-Sayed's death in a statement. They stated, "Baby Jouri Al-Sayed was brought to the emergency department of the central hospital on the evening of 10/7/2021 in critical condition, with severe oxygen deficiency in the blood and blue spots on the body (septic shock). She was given the appropriate full treatment with all necessary medications, with a pediatric intensive care unit available. Later, a decision was made outside the will and consent of the medical staff to transfer the child to another hospital, with warnings about the seriousness of the condition without an equipped means of transportation."
They concluded, "The patient was taken out of the emergency department in a private car after signing a waiver of the hospital's responsibility, only to return minutes later in a state of cardiac arrest and pulmonary failure, and she was subjected to resuscitation without positive results."
The news of the baby's death sparked outrage on social media, as commentators considered the negligence in finding solutions to Lebanon's crisis to rise to the level of crime, and that baby Jouri was one of its victims. Lebanon is suffering from a severe medical crisis due to various reasons related to the lack of medications and medical supplies, intensive care unit beds, power outages, a serious fuel shortage, and the closure of all pharmacies in Lebanon.
