Health Ministry admits faulty wheels, failure to strap patient
MalayMailOnline September 20, 2016
PETALING JAYA, Sept 20 — Faulty ambulance stretcher wheels and failure to strap a patient may have caused an accident victim to fall off while being transported to Jelebu Hospital last month, a preliminary Health Ministry investigation revealed.
“We do not deny there was a malfunction with the stretcher,” the ministry’s deputy director-general, Datuk Dr S. Jeyaindran, said yesterday.
However, he emphasised that 62-year-old Yu Yew Kuan’s fall from the stretcher did not contribute to his death following the accident on August 6.
“A computerised tomography scan showed the patient had sustained serious head injuries in the earlier accident,” he said.
“Even though it was the paramedics’ fault for not strapping him, the incident report shows the fall from the stretcher did not aggravate his head injuries.”
He said the paramedics should have exercised more care when handling the patient.
Dr Jeyaindran said that when the ambulance arrived at the scene of the accident in Jalan Besar Kim Loong, Jelebu, Yu was placed on a scoop stretcher which was lifted and placed on the wheel stretcher.
The ambulance which responded to the emergency had complied with standard operating procedure of the equipment used.
“When responding to accident emergencies, there is a high possibility the victims could have sustained neck or spinal injuries. The procedure is to place the patient on a scoop stretcher before placing the individual on the ambulance stretcher,” he said.
On September 13, Malay Mail frontpaged the incident in which Yu, who was involved in a motorcycle accident, had fallen off the stretcher onto the road surface after its wheels retracted.
Yu was then lifted onto the scoop stretcher before being placed on the ambulance stretcher and rushed to Jelebu Hospital.
On arrival at the hospital, the stretcher was brought out but the wheels retracted again, sending the unconscious patient face down on the ground.
Medical personnel quickly lifted the victim and wheeled him into the emergency and trauma department.
Yu’s condition worsened and he was taken to Seremban Hospital where he died just before midnight.
