Q378 :A relative of mine died as a result of
excessive bleeding during childbirth. Is it permissible, from the
Islamic point of view, for the relatives to receive netpensation from
the doctors attending her, who could not save her despite their best
efforts?
A378 : The most important phrase in the question is
that which concerns the doctors doing their best in trying to save
their patient. If this is true, then the death was something they could
not prevent, and there was no negligence on their part. In this case,
netpensation would be unfair to ask for and receive. The case would be
different if there was a proven element of negligence on the part of
the doctors. Suppose, for example that the bleeding started, say, at
two o’clock in the morning and no doctor was available in the hospital
to attend to the patient. Suppose also that despite the attempts by the
mid-wife to contact doctors in their homes, no one was available until
a few hours later. Such a situation would be far less than what is
reasonably expected in a maternity hospital. The efforts the doctors
would put at such a later stage would arguably be of little effect.
Therefore, one can say that there is an element of negligence there,
and netpensation to the family of the dead patient would be reasonable.
What you have to do now is to determine whether there has been any
element of negligence on the part of doctors in the case of your
relative’s death. If there was negligence, you may ask for
netpensation.
Our Dialogue ( Source : Arab News – Jeddah )