KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 4 – An 18-year-old Sabahan died from dengue fever last Friday after an alleged misdiagnosis by Tuaran Hospital that reportedly did not test him for the virus on his first visit last Christmas.
The parents of Aidil @ Erjuand Christian, a Malaysian citizen, claimed that their son received medication – including paracetamol, cough medicine/ expectorant, an anti-nausea injection, and a pump – after being initially diagnosed with a simple fever last December 25, and was told by the government hospital to return home without admission.
“We went back home because the doctor said our child only had a common fever. That’s what the doctor said. So, we went home on December 25,” Aidil’s father said in an eight-minute video posted on Tuaran MP Wilfred Madius Tangau’s Facebook page.
The 18-year-old from Kampung Bulieng, Tuaran, revisited the hospital on December 28, three days later, as his condition worsened. A blood test revealed he had dengue hemorrhagic fever.
It is unclear why Tuaran Hospital did not take a blood test during Aidil’s initial visit to determine if he had dengue – if indeed Aidil’s father’s allegation about a fever diagnosis was true (the Ministry of Health disputes the fever complaint and diagnosis).
Aidil’s mother, identified by Daily Express as 40-year-old Lily Pius, said that the teenager lost his balance and was unable to walk on December 28.
“So I took him to the hospital on the 28th. During registration, I said that he felt nauseous, had diarrhoea, and was dizzy. I also informed the registration counter that he had lost his appetite.
“When they did the checks, they couldn’t find his blood pressure, and they couldn’t detect his pulse. He was immediately taken to the critical zone in the emergency department, where they conducted a blood test. The result came back positive for dengue hemorrhagic fever.
“The doctor then performed various tests in Berungis (Tuaran Hospital), with the results showing that there was fluid in his stomach,” Lily said. Dengue, being an infectious disease, typically requires patients to undergo treatment in isolation.
Later that evening, Aidil was referred to Queen Elizabeth I Hospital (QEH) in the Sabah state capital of Kota Kinabalu, approximately 34km away from Tuaran Hospital that takes about an hour’s drive.
“The doctor at QEH told me that they had never encountered a critical case of dengue hemorrhagic fever like this before, where the internal organs were almost failing.
“The liver was damaged, there was fluid in the lungs, and the intestines were filled with fluid – I’m not sure if it was bleeding or what – but maybe the doctor suspected it was bleeding, that there was a leakage.
“His (Aidil’s) blood was also acidic and thin. So, even if they wanted to do a surgical procedure, they couldn’t do it because his blood was thin,” Aidil’s mother said.
The teenager succumbed to his illness not long after that.
“We were just 10 minutes away before we reached the top (where he was located) when he took his last breath, without waiting for us,” Lily said, heartbroken. “If only he had been treated properly in Berungis (Tuaran Hospital), perhaps my child would still be here.”
“We don’t want to blame anyone. We accept it; maybe this was the path that God had chosen for him and for our lives.”
Aidil’s father commented: “As parents, because we are not doctors, on the 25th, they should have checked our child more thoroughly. I mean, properly. I don’t want to blame Tuaran Hospital.
“At least, we would have known what illness he had at that time, perhaps he could have been saved. At the very least, we would have known early on that he had dengue.
“We hope that in the future, this will not happen to other families, and issues like these will not recur. Our hope for Tuaran Hospital, if something like this happens again, we sincerely ask, with all our hearts, please provide proper treatment or learn from it before it happens to another child like what happened to ours.”
In a previous Facebook post, Madius referred to his earlier complaints about Tuaran Hospital in Parliament. He asked the Ministry of Health (MOH) to explain how Tuaran Hospital’s emergency department could be solely staffed by junior medical officers, with under two years’ experience, after MOH sent a specialist there following a misdiagnosis case.
“Before this, I had voiced concerns about the shortage of specialist doctors and the lack of equipment to provide better services in diagnosing diseases at Tuaran Hospital.
“Some suggested that I was dissatisfied with the doctors at Tuaran Hospital, but they were gravely mistaken. What I want is to see Tuaran Hospital evolve into a specialised institution with expert doctors, as well as proper equipment for disease detection.
“Yet once again, this has happened at Tuaran Hospital,” Madius said in his post.
In a statement issued on Tuesday, Sabah state health department director Dr Asits Sanna clarified that Tuaran Hospital, an MOH facility, currently employs four specialists: one in general medicine, two paediatric specialists, and one in emergency medicine.
Dr Asits further explained that preliminary investigations by the Sabah state health department revealed that the patient had visited Tuaran Hospital’s emergency department twice, once on December 25 and again on December 28.
According to the hospital’s records, the patient had epigastric pain and had been vomiting for the past day.
Dr Asits alleged that the patient did not report other symptoms such as fever, diarrhoea, chest pain, or breathing difficulties. Vital checks during treatment indicated stable readings, and the temperature was normal, he claimed.
“This patient was treated with gastric medication and anti-emetic medication through intravenous injection and was allowed to go home after about an hour of observation in the observation zone. The patient was then discharged with painkillers, gastric medication, and advised to return to the hospital if symptoms worsened,” Dr Asits said.
The patient returned to the hospital’s emergency department on December 28 at 8.50am, with nosebleeds, fever, vomiting, diarrhoea, and loss of appetite.
“The patient was then examined by the emergency medicine specialist on duty at Tuaran Hospital and confirmed to have dengue on the second visit.
“Considering the patient’s unstable condition, the patient was referred to QEH for further treatment at 11.30am. However, the patient was confirmed deceased in the QEH intensive care unit (ICU) the following day.”
Dr Asits emphasised that the state health department took the case seriously, and a thorough and transparent investigation was underway to identify improvements that could enhance the quality of health care services provided to the people in Sabah.
“The truth is bitter, but for how long will we allow these cases to continue? I ask the Ministry of Health to take note of this case to improve services at Tuaran Hospital so that we don’t lose human lives just like that,” Madius posted on Facebook last Monday.
In Health director-general Dr Muhammad Radzi Abu Hassan’s latest statement on dengue fever surveillance on December 29, the MOH reported 2,913 cases of dengue fever during epidemiological week 51 (December 17 to December 23), a 7.2 per cent decline from the 3,140 cases in the previous epidemiological week.
Four deaths were reported during the same week due to dengue fever complications.
Comparing cumulative dengue cases in 2023 to the same period in 2022 (until epidemiological week 51), there has been an 87.9 per cent surge, reaching 120,418 cases in 2023 compared to 64,078 cases in 2022.
The number of deaths from dengue complications reported in 2023 was nearly double at 96 deaths, from 50 fatalities in the same period in 2022.
