KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 7 – A 51-year-old man died from a heart attack last Sunday in Sultan Abdul Halim Hospital in Sungai Petani, Kedah, after an alleged misdiagnosis despite the hospital conducting an ECG test.
Former Seberang Perai city councillor David Marshel, who highlighted the case, said Chandran Subramaniam was brought to the Sungai Petani general hospital at about 12.45am last December 3 by his neighbour for breathing difficulties and chest pain.
“However, upon arriving at the hospital, he was examined by an assistant medical officer in the emergency department, where an ECG was conducted. The medical officer said that he [Chandran] had gastric, gave him gastric medicine, and asked him to wait his turn for further examination,” David posted on his Facebook page yesterday.
David said Chandran’s child then arrived at the Ministry of Health (MOH) hospital, where the latter complained to the medical officer that Chandran was still critically ill, but was allegedly told to wait their turn.
At about 4.30am, when the queue counter was closed, the public hospital allegedly still did not provide treatment and considered Chandran to merely have gastric pain. “The medical officer didn’t even care.”
At about 6am, Chandran deteriorated and he was sent to the Red Zone of the emergency department, where CPR was performed. About half an hour later at 6.31am, the treating doctor told Chandran’s child that his father had died.
If details of the case, as provided by David, are true, it is unclear how Sultan Abdul Halim Hospital staff failed to pick up on the heart attack after conducting an ECG on Chandran. According to the United Kingdom’s National Health Service, an ECG is an important test in suspected heart attacks and should be done within 10 minutes of being admitted to hospital.
An ECG helps confirm the diagnosis of a heart attack and helps determine what type of heart attack one has had, which will help determine the most effective treatment.
According to David, Chandran’s child filed a police complaint to get an investigation into the case, but police reportedly said the family should sue the hospital instead.
“Many similar cases have occurred in government hospitals, but both the Minister and the Health Ministry have not taken any action to provide the best services to Malaysians who rely on government hospitals,” said David.
“Someone died just like that, despite arriving at the hospital six hours earlier. The Madani government claims that it will bring reform, but it’s all just empty talk.”
David said Urimai, a new political party formed by former Penang deputy chief minister II P. Ramasamy, would help Chandran’s family seek justice.
The media have asked the MOH for comment on the case.
In a copy of Chandran’s death certificate posted by David, the man’s cause of death was listed as acute inferior myocardial infarction.
According to the Department of Statistics Malaysia (DOSM) on causes of death for 2022, ischaemic heart diseases remained the top cause of death in Malaysia last year, with 20,322 deaths or 16.1 per cent of the medically certified deaths.
Ischaemic heart diseases continued as the principal cause of death for the past two decades, except in 2021 when Covid-19 topped the list.
