Inmate Could Ve Been Saved If Blood Clot Treated Earlier Court Told

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K Roopan, 25, died at Kajang Hospital on June 21, 2021, after losing consciousness in his cell hours earlier. (Reuters pic)SHAH ALAM: The death of an inmate at the Kajang prison could have been prevented if he had been treated earlier for his blood clot, a coroner’s court heard today.
K Roopan, 25, died at Kajang Hospital on June 21, 2021, after losing consciousness in his cell hours earlier.
He died a day after he was discharged from the same hospital, having undergone four days of treatment for breathing difficulties.
Pathologist Dr Lee Jiun Yih testified that Roopan’s immediate cause of death was deep vein thrombosis (DVT) on the lower left limb, leading to a pulmonary embolism.
DVT refers to a medical condition in which a blood clot forms in a deep vein.
“The clot ruptured and migrated to the lung which caused difficulty for oxygen transmission to the lung and subsequently led to his death due to hypoxia (low oxygen in tissues),” she said before the coroner, Rasyihah Ghazali.
Lee then explained that early treatment by providing an anticoagulant (medicine to prevent blood clot) to dissolve the clot could have prevented his condition from turning severe.
“For pulmonary embolism, if treatment was given earlier, the survival rate would be high. Other than the treatment, sometimes it requires surgery to remove the clot,” she said.
Another witness Dr Solehah Kamaruzaman said Roopan was already dead when he was rushed to the hospital’s emergency department on June 21.
Solehah claimed that the prison doctor’s referral letter stated that Roopan had no pulse, while no other vital signs could be detected even after 30 minutes of administering CPR (cardio pulmonary resuscitation).
The inquest continues tomorrow.
Roopan was serving time in prison after being convicted in 2017 of a triple murder at his neighbour’s house in Dengkil in 2013, when he was 17.
He died eight days before his appeal, which was set to be heard on June 29, 2021. - FMT

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