Bring Basma home, orders Deputy Crown Prince

Deputy Crown Prince Muhammad Bin Salman, second deputy premier and minister of defense, has ordered that Basma Al-Enizi, the brain-dead Saudi woman, be airlifted from Portland, Oregon, and brought to Hail, her hometown.

Okaz/Saudi Gazette reported that Basma, a scholarship student in the US, has been under treatment at Providence Hospital in Portland for two weeks after suffering partial brain damage following a severe asthma attack.

The hospital gave her husband Hani Al-Enizi, who is also a scholarship student, an ultimatum that his wife’s life-support system would be disconnected if he did not transfer her home.

Prince Muhammad ordered the formation of a medical team to fly immediately to Portland onboard a medical evacuation aircraft to take Basma to her hometown in the north.

He also directed that King Khaled Hospital in Hail be prepared to receive and treat Basma amid the care of her family.

Health Ministry’s spokesman Faisal Al-Zahrani said the procedures for the evacuation of Basma began as soon as the Deputy Crown Prince gave his instructions.

He said King Khaled Hospital is now prepared and ready to receive Basma. Basma’s husband described Deputy Crown Prince Muhammad as a “noble hero” and said he could not thank him enough for his humanitarian gesture.

Recalling the fateful night, Al-Enizi said that Basma had bid him goodnight. But only half an hour later, she came out of the bedroom and told him that she could not breathe.

“I was scared because my wife has been suffering from asthma for the past seven years. I called the ambulance,” he said, adding that the paramedics tried to save her life by giving her oxygen but some of her brain cells had already been damaged.