Hospital fails to provide documents in food poisoning trial

The hospital was ordered by a court to present the results of a postmortem examination on a child who is thought to have died from food poisoning.

Dubai // The hospital ordered by a court to present the results of a postmortem examination on a child who is thought to have died from food poisoning has failed to hand in the documents.   On August 9, the Court of Misdemeanours ordered Dubai Hospital to present the full pathology and forensic report on the seven-year-old French girl Chelsea D'Souza.

Chelsea and her brother, Nathan, five, died in June last year of suspected food poisoning after they ate takeaway food from the Lotus Garden restaurant in Al Qusais.  An Iraqi doctor from the New Medical Centre is charged with causing wrongful death through negligence. A Nepalese chef and a Filipino supervisor at the Lotus Garden restaurant also face charges, as does the restaurant, which is being tried as an establishment.

After failing to appear at the last hearing due to psychological and physical stress caused by the litigation process, the doctor was present yesterday. Following evidence from an independent forensic expert in July, the court ordered Dubai Hospital's pathology and forensic test results for Chelsea to be presented. No reason was given for the failure to present the records and the trial was adjourned until September 27.

The Lotus Garden was given a clean chit by Dubai Municipality and allowed to reopen late last year. The case came to court on March 1 after public prosecutors charged the chef and supervisor for not adhering to public health rules. Prosecutors accused the two, and the restaurant, of storing food unhygienically, resulting in the cultivation of bacteria.  All the defendants deny the charges. @Email:[e-mail]