Iraqi woman blames Istanbul Atatürk Airport staff for stillborn baby

Sazgar Mohammed Arif, 36, was transported to the ambulance from her hotel room in the transit area of the airport in a wheelchair, as the stretcher did not fit into the hotel’s elevator. 

Arif and her husband had been due to fly to Beirut in a Turkish Airlines plane on June 11, after arriving in Istanbul from Iraq’s Sulaymaniyah earlier on the same day. However, the eight months pregnant Arif fell ill while getting on the plane and was prevented from flying to Beirut. 

She was placed in the hotel in the transit area of the hotel on June 11 and started to suffer labor pains in her room late on June 13. Her husband called the doctor, who said Arif should go to a hospital urgently because she was about to give birth.

The hotel staff wanted to place her on a stretcher but it did not fit into the elevator, so Arif was moved to a wheel chair and was transported to the ambulance outside the gate of the international arrivals area. She gave birth as she was about to get into the ambulance.

The doctor in attendance told the couple that their baby was not breathing and gave the baby a heart massage as they rushed to the hospital in Istanbul’s Bakırköy district. However, the baby could not be saved. 

The Iraqi couple has now filed a complaint with the prosecutor’s office, claiming that the reason for the baby being stillborn was the wheelchair Arif was transported in. 

The Bakırköy Prosecutor’s Office has launched an investigation into the incident.