Narges Mohammadi, the imprisoned vice president of the Defenders of Human Rights Center was transferred to hospital on Monday morning following a convulsion.
After a gallbladder surgery last month, doctors noticed that Mohammadi had a new complication in her digestive system stemming from the existence of a gland in her stomach. Therefore, she was supposed to be taken for urgent medical examinations and tests to determine the cause but unfortunately, she was released from the hospital immediately without carrying out the tests or providing treatment for the complication.
Narges Mohammadi was constantly suffering from nausea and lost six kilos and the authorities did not heed the advice of her doctor for her admission. This continued until Sunday night when Mohammadi experienced a serious convulsion which was a sign that her illness which she caught when she was in solitary confinement in Zanjan prison was returning. Finally after confirmation from the medical professionals in prison, Mohammadi was transferred to hospital for diagnosis and treatment on Monday 13th of August.
Mohammadi’s medical doctor ordered her admission in a hospital for gall and kidney stones in June 2016 but she was not treated until July this year and after experiencing excruciating pain for 24 hours, she had a gallbladder surgery on June 30. But upon an order from the prosecutor, Mohammadi was transferred back to hospital two days after the surgery and before the completion of required treatment.
Over the last four weeks, Narges Mohammadi lost six kilos and her family informed her doctor about the weight loss. Her doctor then wrote a letter setting out medical reasons including the prescribed drugs she was taking after the surgery and asked the medical facility in prison to transfer her to a hospital for further test on her prescribed drugs and to determine the condition of her digestive system. However, the prison prosecutor opposed the medical opinion for Mohammadi to see a gastroenterologist.
Over the last four weeks she experienced nausea several times and was taken to the medical center in Evin prison and even the doctors in the medical center recommended that she should be transferred and examined to determine her exact condition but the medical center’s authorities and the prison prosecutor opposed it. Once again, on August 7, Narges Mohammadi’s doctor sent a letter to the prison and the prosecutor’s office calling on them to transfer her immediately to hospital for admission and further tests to determine the cause of the weight loss and the occurrence of constant vomiting but the prison and the medical center’s authorities rejected the call again.
Sadly after rejecting calls by her lawyers and doctors for Mohammadi to be transferred to hospital, at 4 am on Monday morning, she experienced severe anxiety attacks and vomiting, and was taken to the prison medical center. She was kept in the center until 10:30 without taking an ECG or providing any care as the oxygen machine was broken. She was taken to hospital after hours of waiting.
It appears that the delay by prison authorities in transferring prisoners to a hospital for adequate medical care and instead keeping them in prison as their conditions deteriorate has become a policy of the judiciary system. The case of Narges Mohammadi and the delay from June 2016 until July this year and further delays in transferring her for urgent tests until Monday morning is the proof for this policy of the judiciary.
