Forensic expert: Adib’s injuries highly unusual

SHAH ALAM (Bernama): A forensic expert shared that it was the first time he had seen such a “unique” injury, where left ribs number one to seven were broken in a straight vertical line.

Kuala Lumpur Hospital’s Forensic Medicine Department chief Datuk Dr Mohd Shah Mahmood (pic) told the Coroner’s Court in the inquest into the death of fireman Muhammad Adib Mohd Kassim that the injury was detected during the post-mortem on Dec 18 last year.

He said the pattern showed that it might have been caused by a thin and blunt object.

“During the post-mortem, we found that the victim had fractured his left ribs and the injury was unique,” the 27th witness said in reply to conducting officer Hamdan Ham­zah.

Dr Mohd Shah, 59, who has handled more than 1,000 post-mortems in his 13 years of service in Hospital Kuala Lumpur, said the team was also puzzled as to why no prior information was given regarding the injury.

He said the unique injury was not detected during the clinical examination of the victim at the National Heart Institute (IJN) intensive care unit on Nov 30.

He also said that on Dec 22 last year, his team was called to assist police in reconstructing the incident at the scene, during which they had found six possibilities that might have caused the fractures on the ribs.

Dr Mohd Shah said two possibilities involved Muhammad Adib being hit by the left and right rear corners of the Fire Rescue Tender (FRT) vehicle and another four possibilities involved him being hit by the two ladders at the back of the vehicle.

He said his team then found that the left front door of the Emergency Medical Rescue Service (EMRS) van, which Muhammad Adib had travelled in, had a thin and vertical corner which was about two millimetres wide.

“At that point, we realised that it could be the thin and blunt object, which was consistent with the unique injury on his left ribs, which were broken in a straight vertical line,” he said.

Dr Mohd Shah said the injury patterns showed that it was unlikely that Muhammad Adib was crushed (between the FRT vehicle and the EMRS van) as the injuries would have been greater.

He also said there were no injuries on the victim’s arms and legs to indicate that he had defended himself from being assaulted.

Muhammad Adib, 24, was a member of the Subang Jaya Fire and Rescue Station’s EMRS unit. He was seriously injured during a riot incident at the Sri Maha Mariamman Temple in USJ 25, Subang Jaya, on Nov 27 last year.

He succumbed to his injuries at IJN on Dec 17. — Bernama