Kugan’s demise: Odoema and myocarditis after all

The result of the independent post mortem on A Kugan, 22, who died in Police custody while being detained for a car theft investigation in Subang Jaya Police Station, revealed that he died of heart ailments. To be precise, fluid in the lungs and enlargement of the heart.

The Star has the story:

Kugan died of inflamed heart and lung, blunt force trauma (Update)

By MAZWIN NIK ANIS

 

KUALA LUMPUR: An Independent committee that investigated the two post mortem reports of suspected car thief A.Kugan, who died in police custody, found that the cause of death was due to acute pulmonary oedema due to acute myocarditis, compounded by blunt force trauma said Health Director-General Tan Sri Dr Ismail Merican on Monday.

Wikipedia describes pulmonary oedema as the swelling of the lung tissue and/or the accumulation of fluid in the lungs. Myocarditis is said to be the inflammation of the heart muscles.

In releasing the findings, the 10-men committee unanimously agreed there was no evidence of thermal injuries in the skin on the back of the deceased as reported in the second post mortem and was of the opinion the injuries on Kugan’s back were the result of repeated trauma by a blunt but flexible object, like folded rubber hose.

Health director-general Tan Sri Dr. Ismail Merican said the deceased was found to have an underlying acute myocarditis and the blunt force trauma could have led to acute renal failure.

“This (renal failure) had aggrevated the acute myocarditis, resulting in acute pulmonary oedema or lung congestion,” he said.

As for injuries on Kugan’s back, they were in fact patterned imprint injuries which had been caused by a blunt and flexible object.

“There was no evidence that the deceased had been `branded’ or be given repeated application of heat with an instrument or object.

“All body injuries noted on the deceased were insufficient, either individually or collectively to cause death directly,” he told a press conference Monday.

Dr Ismail said it was also concluded that the discrepency was not due to “foul reporting, misleading of information and neither was there any intention to hide information”, adding the findings would be handed over to the Attorney-General’s Chambers on Tuesday.

Kugan, 22, was detained by police on Jan 15 this year in relation to investigations of alleged car theft but died five days later while in police custody.

An autopsy was performed to establish the cause of death and this was done on Jan 21 by head of Serdang Hospital forensic unit, Dr Abdul Karim Tajuddin, who gave the cause of death as ”acute pulmonary oedema”.

The family then requested Universiti Malaya Medical Centre (UMMC) to conduct a second post mortem, which was done on Jan 25 and the pathologist gave the provisional cause of death (pending toxicology report) as “acute renal failure due to rhbdomyolysis due to blunt trauma to skeletal muscles.”

The discrepancies in the two post mortem reports had resulted in the deceased’s family alleging that there were attempts to cover-up his cause of death.

In view of the allegations, the independent investigation committee was set up to conduct an indepth study and assessment of both post mortems.

Dr Ismail said Dr Karim had 26 years of working experience as a pathologist while Dr Prashant N. Samberkar, who conducted the second post mortem, had 11 years of work experience mainly in India and Fiji before serving in Malaysia in 2008.

He said Kugan’s family’s request for a second autopsy was not in accordance with the provision of the Criminal Procedure Code where subsequent post mortems required a court order, adding it was “nevertheless done”.

On the differences in the number of external injuries found on Kugan, Dr ismail said Dr Karim tabulated 22 external injuries because he had grouped them by regions of the body while Dr Prashant had listed some individually and some in groups.

“This had resulted in a discrepancy but based on the report by Dr Karim, there were actually a total 86 number of external injuries of various shapes and sizes.

Whereas, Dr Prashant documented 45 but out of these, six were incision wounds that had been made by Dr Karim earlier,” he said.

Dr Ismail said Dr Prashant had also misidentified and misinterpreted some changes in post mortem hypotasis as injuries by the deceased before his death and the committee was unable to establish how and where Kugan’s body was kept between the first and second post mortem, adding this would have significantly effected the physical state of the body.

“The discrepancy in the reports were due to the absence of communication between the two pathologists, the misinterpretation of post mortem changes and some of the injuries by the second pathologist (Dr Prashant).

“This could have been avoided if the two were in communication when the second post mortem was conducted,” he said.

Dr Ismail said the committee made several recommendations, including ensuring proper post mortem procedures be followed and in event of a second autopsy, that it was ethical for the second pathologist to communicate with the first pathologist, in keeping with accepted international practice and standards.

“It must be reminded that all medical reports, including post mortem reports are confidential and should not be divulged to unauthorised personnel.

“I hope the committee’s findings will put to rest any doubt that we are in cohorts with anyone as far as this case is concerned,” he said.

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To those who easily and conveniently want to blame Police brutality on Kugan’s death should apologize and do so immediately. Especially amongst pro-PKR supporters. PKR, a creation of power-of-abuse-convict Anwar Ibrahim had been promoting anarchy via all the universally-correct values such as ‘human rights’ and consistently promoting civil unrest and street demosntration in the lame and sordid excuse of Police brutality and being ‘dogs of the Federal Government’.

This is easily illustrated from the conveniently translated forms in all the illegal assemblies organized, even as low as to capitalize the misfortune of the some people, like Kugan’s family. To dramatize this misfortune further, PKR paid for the funeral and organized the procession.

Were they advocating trouble from this? Probably. It was the same tactics DAP used post May 1969 General Elections where DAP and Gerakan managed to trounce UMNO, MCA and MIC into an even draw. Conveniently, two youths were killed by Police in Kepong and DAP and Gerakan organized a three day funeral procession all over Kuala Lumpur. During the processions, the adrenalized advocate of social unrest hooligans shouted at and against the Malays in humiliating ton. The heated situation came to an unberable boiling point when several DAP supporters went into the MB Selangor residence and peed on the flag staff. This broke the camel’s back and instantaneously the Kampung Baru and Gombak Malay youths decided to react.

Hell broke loose. It became the bloody racial unrest of 13 May 1969; an event majority of Malaysians vehemently want to avoid.

Somehow, many ‘intellectual anarchists’, lead by party-less Opposition leader Anwar “Drama King” Ibrahim and chauvinists and extremists acting behind NGOs like Dr. Kua Kia Soong and Dr. Farish Noor, consistently and structurally ‘blow and sow the winds of hatred’, via guised brainwashing advocating social unrest via ‘intellectual discourse’.

Malaysians should be cautioned with extra care. The peace, harmony, tolerance and co-operation that was painstakingly developed and put in place for Malaysians should never be compromised for all the guised universally correct values and expectations. Otherwise, this is what the Internal Security Act is for.

Lesson learned; Whenever a youth dies under Police custody, do not over react before the post mortem in done.