Saudi refuses treatment by 'Indians'

Kolkata: A Saudi Arabian, who was offered help by Air India officials at the Kolkata airport after he fell ill, refused to be treated in the city. He insisted that he be flown back to his country.
"I am from Saudi Arabia. You are Indian. I won't take treatment from you. I want to go home. I have a baby back home," Alsolami Meadi Medkhil (52) told TOI in broken English.
Medkhil was rushed to a private hospital after Qatar Airways' Bangkok-Doha flight made an emergency landing at Kolkata airport on Friday morning.
A retired Saudi Air Force officer, he complained of severe pain in the lower abdomen. But he refused treatment on reaching the hospital and insisted that he be allowed to fly to his country. So, Medkhil was taken to the airport and will be put on a flight to Dubai on Saturday evening if certified to fly.
His pain started around 9 am, an hour after the QA flight took off from Bangkok. The captain radioed a request to the air traffic control in Kolkata around 9.30 am. The hospital authorities even made him speak to the Saudi embassy in Delhi. But he still insisted on going home. "All our efforts to keep him confined to his bed were in vain," said an employee of the hospital. When the TOI team visited the hospital, Medkhil was sitting outside the main gate.
05/07/08 Times of India

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Categories: Foreign Jul 2008