Egyptian security summons video shooter of death at quarantine hospital for investigation

CAIRO – 4 January 2020: Sharqeya Security Directorate summoned on Monday the citizen who shot a video in the intensive care unit of the quarantine section at Husseineya Hospital and posted it on social media Sunday.

The citizen – called Ahmed Mamdouh - claimed in the video that all patients on the ventilators in the intensive care unit died in the same time as a result of the depression in oxygen levels pumped into them. His excuse for being present in the "quarantine section" at the hospital is that his aunt was lying in the intensive care and was among the four patients who died.  

Mamdouh will be interrogated on the reason behind his presence in the hospital at the time, if his aunt was really receiving treatment in the intensive care unit allocated for COVID-19 patients, and the goal of posting the video on social media.

A source told Al Watan newspaper that the directorate will also investigate if he has certain political affiliations, and if his aim was calling for help or tarnishing the image of Egypt and to horrify citizens.

In parallel, the Public Prosecution is holding an investigation with a number of doctors at Husseineya hospital to determine the causes of death of the four patients and if the reason is the depression of oxygen pumping levels.

The hospital's manager told local media that the four patients died in separate times denying that the oxygen supply got interrupted.

An official at the Ministry of Health and Population stated in a phone-in Sunday that the security personnel at the hospital are also being interrogated by the Public Prosecution for allowing visitors in the quarantine section of the hospital putting public health in jeopardy.  

A similar incident occurred in Zefta General Hospital in Gharbia governorate Saturday as two patients died in the intensive care unit. Their relatives claim they died in the same time because of a cut in oxygen supply to ventilators in the entire hospital.

In a phone-in Saturday, the hospital's manager denied the news saying there were more than a dozen of other patients on ventilators in both the quarantine section and in the regular one and who would not survive if the oxygen supply was disrupted.

The deceased are a 67-year-old male and a 58-year-old female who were suffering from chronic deceases, and who were put on ventilators because of severe symptoms caused by COVID-19 infection.