The nurse story
I have removed the names of the Qataris involved and the company name to avoid untoward controversy.
Hopefully, the system has now improved in Qatar.
Valere was our neighbour and friend. Her husband Bert was an engineer in XXXX
Valerie Coakes (a childrens Nurse, in her late 40’s and trained at The Great Ormond Street chidrens clinic in London) was working as a nurse at the Al-Saad clinic.
She didn’t need to work but thought she would keep herself busy and wanted to help Qatar to what extent she could.
One evening, a Bedouin family (Al-XXXXX tribe) brought an 18 months old baby into the clinic with a fever. The Dr asked her to give the baby a suppository, which she did. She noticed that the baby was bleeding from the vagina and reported this to the Dr. He advised her to send the family to the Hamad Hospital.
An hour later, the police arrived and arrested her for placing the suppository in the vagina and not the rectum. She was arrested and held for approximately 3 days prior to appearing in court and being found guilty by a judge (26 years old and also an Al-XXXXX). She was sentenced to a period in jail followed by deportation. She appealed and this was strongly supported by specialists at the Hamad who wanted to bring further expertise in from Dubai and Bahrain. Permission was denied by the judge who wished to rely on the evidence of an Egyptian woman pathologist.
Valeries passport was confiscated and she wasn’t allowed to leave Qatar until the matter was resolved. Her husband applied to the MD of XXXX to have his leave postponed until his wife could also travel. The request was denied. The MD was also an Al-XXXXX.
At the end of the period when she would have been released and subsequently deported, she heard that the police were en-route to deport her. We loaned her our ladder so that she could come over the garden wall if they should turn up. They would have to obtain permission to enter our house and we wouldn’t have given it.
Eventually (after about a year), the case came to court and the judge commuted the sentence to a suspended sentence saying that “she wasn’t guilty but neither was she not guilty” (at which point she lost her cool and screamed at the judge) and on condition that such an occurrence didn’t happen again. As it would only have required a complaint from an Al-XXXXX to put her in jail, she and her husband quit and left Qatar.
During the one-year period, her daughter brought it to the attention of her boss who was northern editor of a leading UK daily and it was reported widely in the UK.
The case was never reported in the Qatar English language dailies but was reported on heavily in the Arab press.
A DJ on QBS played a request, the song “Valerie” for her with the words “there’s an English lady out there who’s isn’t having much luck, this is for her”. He was sacked 10 minutes later .
Val and Bert are now retired in Somerset.
No it isn't and I won't be drawn on which it was, not on an open forum.
Chuckling........I don't think they qualify as Bedouin.
I feel sorry for her, can't imagine her trauma, but is
Al-XXXX = Al-thani???
People should be made aware. To many expats here think they are immune and that they have the rights that they would normally have in their own countries. It is not the case.
Oh and by the way, I heard of a disturbing report about a possible incident in front of a nursey here where a guy was 'doing something under a newspaper' (if you catch my drift). Need to get more info before I paste up for all to see. So hey, keep your kids safe.....the world is no longer the nice place it was.
"The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated." Mahatma Gandhi
Mastermind, I don't think Dweller meant to scare anybody, he posted this after many people showed an interest. Read:
http://www.qatarliving.com/node/22588
Dear Dweller
Your intuition to put forward such incidents into the eyes of public is good... but a 20 year old story is..too much..
Please dont make people panic .. but make them vigilant..
Hope to get more stories from you.. in future.. for I hope this world has lot of stories in a 50 year history.
Good Day
Mastermind
I'm very happy in Turkey with six Saturdays and one Sunday in each week.
I venture to the Gulf on short contracts and even then very infrequently.
I guess you're now happily settling down in Turkey.
Given a choice, would you want to come back to Qatar ?
Good heavens, dweller, you had me thinking it was very recent! Maybe put a dateline on stuff like that next time, wot? (said wot not 'eh' cos Richard may think I'm Canadian lol)
I certainly hope that the situation and attitudes have improved. The incident occurred about 20 years since.
It was one of those things. I don't know what happened to the baby but assume that she grew up and is now probably married.
Instances like this did happen. Our own son was remanded by Sharia CID in the fort at Al-Rayyan for a week for drunken driving.
The charge sheet showed the wromg name, the wrong time and the wrong place. He was the passenger, didn't drive then and in fact still doesn't drive.
The police were very good and and even they couldn't explain why HE was remanded and the driver released.
Thanks for that dweller. It makes very salutary and sad reading. How many years ago did this occur? Did the baby recover?
In your opinion dweller have attitudes changed in Qatar or do you think this is as likely to happen again?
Victory attained by violence is tantamount to a defeat, for it is momentary. Mahatma Gandhi
What a terrible story Dweller. Corruption at its worst. I'm so sorry the nurse and her family had to go through that.
Sounds like a suspicious injury from the infant's genital area. Looks like the family were trying to cover up the fact that probably the injury was caused by a family member.
I'm lost for words!