Death Of A Patient - 'Septicemic Shock' Or Criminal Negligence?

A single mother lodged a police report urging the authorities to investigate the death of her son, claiming it was due to negligence on the part of hospital staff.

A. Paruwali, 59, of Taman Bukit Dinding here, said her son A. Seva, 31, was healthy prior to an accident on Jan 22 near Maran which left him with a broken leg and other bodily injuries.

He was warded at the Temerloh Hospital for two weeks before being transferred to the Bentong Hospital.

“After spending five more days in the hospital, my son was discharged and given a clean bill of health,” she said. The doctors told him to come back every two days to change his dressing at the Karak health clinic.

“However, on April 3, he was feeling unwell and had breathing difficulties, and was admitted to the Bentong Hospital.

“Several hours later, he died without regaining consciousness at the intensive care unit,” she said, adding that the cause of death was listed as "septicemic shock."

Paruwali said she decided to lodge a police report on Tuesday as she was not satisfied with the explanation given.

"The hospital staff apologised for my son's death and told me not to bring up the matter in the open. I want justice for my son and the actual cause of death as the hospital staff had earlier told him he was healthy and his wound was healing fast," she said, adding that no post-mortem was conducted on Seva but the family was allowed to claim his remains after signing some documents.

Bentong DAP division committee member D. Kamache said the family had the right to a "proper and full report" on Seva's death.

"If he had died from wound infections, then how come the doctors could not detect it earlier to give him proper treatment?

"Besides, a post-mortem should be done before his body was released," she said, adding that the authorities would need to exhume his remains as it was already buried at the Karak Hindu cemetery.

Meanwhile, Health Minister and Bentong MP Datuk Liow Tiong Lai said he had yet to receive a full report on the matter. (The Star)

***** When post-mortems are done for cases even when the cause of death is apparent why was it not performed here? If a 31 year-old person who met with an accident on Jan 22 dies on April 3 of 'septicemic shock' what could have caused the deadly infection after a gap of two-and-a-half months? And that too undetected! Something is seriously wrong somewhere and the authorities had better investigate this case without fear or favour.