Deputy health DG leads probe into ‘incidents’ linked to alleged ventilator failure

The health ministry says the committee convened on Feb 9.

(FMT) – Deputy health director-general (DG) Nor Fariza Ngah is leading an investigation committee on several deaths allegedly involving the use of ventilators in the treatment of patients at a Klang Valley hospital.

The health ministry said the committee convened on Feb 9 and was chaired by Nor Fariza, who is deputy health DG for research and technical support.

“The meeting involved studying documentation on patients medical records, standard operating procedures, existing guidelines, as well as interviewing every medical staff involved in the treatment of the patients,” it said in a written parliamentary reply.

The ministry was responding to Kepong MP Lim Lip Eng, who asked for an update on the matter.

In January, FMT reported that a patient had died while another was declared brain-dead in two incidents occurring within a week of each other at a Klang Valley hospital.

A source attributed the deaths to the alleged failure of ventilators at the hospital.

In response, Hospital Kuala Lumpur confirmed it was probing the incidents, saying that all complications occurring during the treatment of patients are investigated in accordance with the health ministry’s incident report management guidelines.

The ministry today also said that the hospital would meet with the patients’ next-of-kin to inform them of the outcome of the committee’s investigation.

FMT previously cited the source as claiming that in the first case, medical personnel failed to resuscitate a patient who had been rendered unconscious following the alleged malfunction of a ventilator.

In the second incident, the source said the patient was declared brain-dead after being found to have been unconscious for 15 minutes. The patient was said to have been put under general anaesthesia in an attempt to locate and extract a fishbone from the patient’s throat.

According to doctors, denying the brain oxygen for more than 15 minutes is likely to result in death or brain death.

A source also claimed there were two other cases of ventilator failure. One patient was successfully revived following cardiopulmonary resuscitation or CPR, while the condition of the other remains unknown.