Heart doctor casts doubt on assault being cause of fireman Adib’s injuries
Ho Kit Yen
-February 21, 2019 8:50 PM
Dr Anand Sachithanandan.SHAH ALAM: A senior doctor who treated Muhammad Adib Mohd Kassim said today the injuries sustained by the late fireman during the Seafield temple violence may not be due to assault.
Dr Anand Sachithanandan, a cardiothoracic surgeon at Subang Jaya Medical Centre (SJMC), told the inquest into Adib’s death that there were a few possible causes of the injuries on Adib’s right chest to shoulder.
“His injuries would be because of major blunt chest trauma. Among the mechanisms that lead to this kind of injury would be a crush injury, a fall from a height, acceleration, and also assault,” he said, in answering conducting officer Zhafran Hamzah’s questions as to the possible causes of Adib’s injuries.
Although Anand could not ascertain the exact cause of the injury, he cast doubt on assault being the cause.
“For injuries sustained from assault, it is unusual to be confined to one area,” he said, referring to Adib’s right chest and shoulder.
He added: “Normally we expect self-defence wounds if a person is assaulted but we did not see it on him.”
Anand also told the inquest that the senior doctors treating Adib made a decision to transfer him to the National Heart Institute (IJN) as that hospital had a machine that would be able to ease his injured lung.
“He was in stable condition but still ill. So sending him to IJN was the best way forward,” he added.
The inquest was called by the government amid conflicting claims on the cause of Adib’s death.
Adib was part of a response team sent from the Subang Jaya fire and rescue station on Nov 27 to the temple area in answer to a call that cars had been set on fire. He died at IJN on Dec 17.
The hearing continues on Monday (Feb 25) before Coroner Rofiah Mohamad.
Meanwhile, the Court of Appeal will hear the Seafield temple task force’s bid to stop the inquest proceeding and their application to take part in the Adib inquest tomorrow.
The task force previously sought to participate in the inquest but was rejected.
