A nurse later told the girl’s parents that Dr. Karabus had failed to give the patient a transfusion of platelets and that this had contributed to her death from the brain hemorrhage, his family said. The nurse claimed that Dr. Karabus had falsified the medical records to indicate that she had been given platelets. Based on this evidence, Dr. Karabus was convicted of manslaughter and forgery in absentia. His family says it received no notice of the conviction.

Dr. Karabus, who used temporary jobs like the one in Abu Dhabi to supplement his government pension, might never have had to face the issue had he not stopped in Dubai on Aug. 18, 2012. He was traveling with his wife; his daughter, Sarah, who is also a pediatrician; and her husband and two children. Because of a long layover, the airline had booked rooms for the family in a hotel, the daughter said.

Leaving the airport required a day visa, and the other family members received theirs quickly at the airport. But Dr. Karabus’s visa took longer for some reason, so he urged his daughter and her family to go ahead to the hotel. Once he got his visa, Dr. Karabus went to the immigration desk to enter Dubai, but he was arrested instead.

“They said to him, ‘You are a murderer; you are wanted by Interpol,’ ” his daughter said.

When the rest of the family returned to the airport to find Dr. Karabus’s distraught wife, they tried to stay in the country to find out what had happened to him. But Emirati officials ordered them to board their scheduled flight to Cape Town and leave Dr. Karabus behind.

“I said, ‘We’ve got to stay; we can’t leave him here,’ ” his daughter said. “The authorities said they wouldn’t renew our visa and we had to leave.”

A long, fretful flight took them home. It took two days for the South African Embassy to make contact with her father. The family scrambled to find a lawyer in the emirates and navigate a confusing, foreign legal system.

On Aug. 21, Dr. Karabus was taken to court, but the prosecution asked for a delay because it could not find the court file, Dr. Sarah Karabus said. It was the first of what would ultimately be 11 court appearances, many of them resulting in postponements. At first, he was held in jail and denied bail, his family said, and was not allowed to call home.