SHAH ALAM: A 25-year-old Kajang Prison inmate's life could have been saved had the Kajang Hospital doctors detected a blood clot in his calf a day before his death in 2021, the Coroner's Court here heard today.
Dr T Poven, who discharged K. Roopan on June 20 that year, claimed that there were no D-Dimer test results in the patient's investigation chart and he was not aware of the test taken on Roopan prior to his death.
D-Dimer is a blood test that signals the presence of blood clots.
He then told lawyer T Sashi Devan, who represented Roopan's family that he found out about the test result which showed 17.97 readings instead of the normal 0.5, after checking the patient's test history at the medical lab.
Shashi: Prior to discharge, you did not see the test results at all, and you didn't know at the point of discharge that there was a D-Dimer test?
Dr Poven: Exactly.
Sashi: In hindsight, had you seen the test, you would refer to a specialist, and you would at least inquire as to who asked for the test to be done.
Dr Poven: Definitely. I go through my patient in detail.
Sashi: And I'm sure your patient appreciates that. But how do you know about the test?
Dr Poven: I saw it after he passed away. It was not in the system but I personally went to the lab to see, I wanted to know what was being done and what was not because after all, I will tell you, in my mind, this patient should not have died.
His emotions eruispted towards the end of today's proceedings when he repeatedly told the court that had the blood clot been dscovered prior to the deceased's discharge, the hospital would have attended to the clot.
"Because when there are blood clots, that means there's a problem. So yes, we need to treat the problem.
"If a blood clot is not treated, the patient will die, depending on the size of the clot," he said.
Coroner Rasyihah Ghazali fixed April 17 for the next hearing.
Roopan was sentenced to jail in 2017 for murder. He was rushed to Kajang Hospital for treatment on June 17, 2021, due to breathing difficulties.
He was discharged on June 20 the same year and he died the following day.
The post-mortem examination report stated he died due to a blood clot-related condition.