Blunt force trauma did not cause Kugan's death
Published: Apr 6, 2009 4:46 PM | Updated: Apr 6, 2009 7:25 PM
Police detainee Kugan Ananthan had died of acute pulmonary oedema due to acute myocarditis, or acute inflammation of the heart muscle, compounded by blunt force trauma, an independent committee investigating the two post-mortem reports on him concluded.
updated 7.10pm
A Health Ministry's independent committee states that blows to his body were insufficient, either individually or collectively, to cause death directly.
Police detainee Kugan Ananthan had died of acute pulmonary oedema due to acute myocarditis, or acute inflammation of the heart muscle, compounded by blunt force trauma, an independent committee investigating the two post-mortem reports on him concluded.
Health Ministry director-general Dr Mohd Ismail Merican said today Kugan was found to have a underlying acute myocarditis, while the blunt force trauma could have led to acute renal failure aggravating the acute myocarditis, resulting in acute pulmonary oedema.
"Acute myocarditis is an acute inflammation of the heart muscle which may be caused by infections or toxins. It is a known cause of sudden death in young adults and gross examination of the heart appears unremarkable in up to 30 percent of the cases," he was quoted as saying by Bernama.
Ismail said all body injuries noted on Kugan were insufficient, either individually or collectively, to cause death directly.
"There was no evidence of injuries to the internal organs and no skeletal fractures were detected," he said.
Kugan, who was detained by the police on Jan 15 for investigation for alleged car theft, died on Jan 20 while in police custody.
The post-mortem done by the head of the Forensic Unit of Serdang Hospital, Dr Abdul Karim Tajuddin, concluded the cause of death as acute pulmonary oedema.
Kugan's family requested a second post-mortem, which was done by the University Malaya Medical Centre's (UMMC) pathologist, Dr Prashant N Samberkar, who gave the provisional cause of death (pending toxicology) as acute renal failure due to rhbdomyolysis due to blunt trauma to skeletal muscles.
The discrepancies between the two reports had raised some questions and this led the Health Ministry to set up a committee to investigate.
As Kugan's body was cremated after the second autopsy, the committee is believed to have made its findings based on the two conflicting post-mortem reports.
UUMC doc 'misidentified, misinterpreted'
Ismail said the committee, which was chaired by Kuala Lumpur Hospital senior consultant forensic pathologist Dr Mohd Shah Mahmood and comprising nine other local and foreign doctors including those from Singapore and Saudi Arabia, also found that both pathologists who did the post-mortems had no intention of misleading or hiding any information on the findings.
However, he said, the second pathologist had misidentified and misinterpreted some of the post-mortem changes as being part of the initial injuries sustained by Kugan.
He said the pathologist also misinterpreted the patterned imprint injuries on the body as 'burn wounds', as there was no evidence of inflammatory infiltrates or thermal injuries in the skin from the back of the deceased, which would be present in thermal injury.
"It has to be emphasised that the autopsy report by Dr Prashant is a provisional report because he has not completed the autopsy as the toxicology is still pending, as stated in his report," he said.
Ismail said the committee also was not able to establish how and where Kugan's body was kept after being released to his family until it was brought to UMMC for the second post-mortem, as it would significantly affect the physical state of the body.
The report would be handed over to the attorney-general tomorrow and it is up to him to take any actions needed, he said.
Health Ministry director-general Dr Mohd Ismail Merican said today Kugan was found to have a underlying acute myocarditis, while the blunt force trauma could have led to acute renal failure aggravating the acute myocarditis, resulting in acute pulmonary oedema. "Acute myocarditis is an acute inflammation of the heart muscle which may be caused by infections or toxins. It is a known cause of sudden death in young adults and gross examination of the heart appears unremarkable in up to 30 percent of the cases," he was quoted as saying by Bernama.
Ismail said all body injuries noted on Kugan were insufficient, either individually or collectively, to cause death directly.
"There was no evidence of injuries to the internal organs and no skeletal fractures were detected," he said.
Kugan, who was detained by the police on Jan 15 for investigation for alleged car theft, died on Jan 20 while in police custody. The post-mortem done by the head of the Forensic Unit of Serdang Hospital, Dr Abdul Karim Tajuddin, concluded the cause of death as acute pulmonary oedema.
Kugan's family requested a second post-mortem, which was done by the University Malaya Medical Centre's (UMMC) pathologist, Dr Prashant N Samberkar, who gave the provisional cause of death (pending toxicology) as acute renal failure due to rhbdomyolysis due to blunt trauma to skeletal muscles.
The discrepancies between the two reports had raised some questions and this led the Health Ministry to set up a committee to investigate.
As Kugan's body was cremated after the second autopsy, the committee is believed to have made its findings based on the two conflicting post-mortem reports.
UUMC doc 'misidentified, misinterpreted'
Ismail said the committee, which was chaired by Kuala Lumpur Hospital senior consultant forensic pathologist Dr Mohd Shah Mahmood and comprising nine other local and foreign doctors including those from Singapore and Saudi Arabia, also found that both pathologists who did the post-mortems had no intention of misleading or hiding any information on the findings.
However, he said, the second pathologist had misidentified and misinterpreted some of the post-mortem changes as being part of the initial injuries sustained by Kugan. He said the pathologist also misinterpreted the patterned imprint injuries on the body as 'burn wounds', as there was no evidence of inflammatory infiltrates or thermal injuries in the skin from the back of the deceased, which would be present in thermal injury.
"It has to be emphasised that the autopsy report by Dr Prashant is a provisional report because he has not completed the autopsy as the toxicology is still pending, as stated in his report," he said.
Ismail said the committee also was not able to establish how and where Kugan's body was kept after being released to his family until it was brought to UMMC for the second post-mortem, as it would significantly affect the physical state of the body.
The report would be handed over to the attorney-general tomorrow and it is up to him to take any actions needed, he said.
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