Police have launched an investigation into an incident where a pregnant woman had a miscarriage after she was not allowed to leave the enhanced movement control order (MCO) area of Bandar Baru Sentul, Kuala Lumpur to seek treatment from her doctor.
Sentul district police chief Beh Eng Lai said they received a police report from the woman's husband, who was dissatisfied with the action of a police officer who barred his wife from leaving the area to go to the clinic on July 6.
"Checks revealed that on July 6, the husband had applied for permission to leave the enhanced MCO area so that his pregnant wife could get treatment.
"The husband was instead advised by the police personnel on duty to refer her case to the Health Ministry officers on duty inside the enhanced MCO area.
"Following the report lodged by the husband, a thorough investigation will be conducted, and appropriate action will be taken," Beh said in a statement.
However, it was yet to be determined if the delay in seeking treatment has led to the miscarriage.
The statement was issued after the husband detailed their ordeal on a website called In Real Life, which publishes public confessions.
For the record, authorities started enforcing an enhanced MCO on Bandar Baru Sentul on July 3, following spikes in the number of positive Covid-19 cases in the area.
Sent to another clinic
According to the website, the husband, only identified as Ayie, said his wife had been suffering from bleeding in June where she was given medication by her doctor.
He said the doctor also advised his wife, who is in her first trimester, to return to the clinic immediately should the bleeding occur again in the future.
On the day of the incident, his wife was said to have suffered another bleeding around noon, prompting the man to seek permission from the police to bring her to see the doctor, but this was denied.
He claimed that a female police officer had barred them from going to the clinic, saying that it was not an emergency case, and told them to contact the Medical Mobile Team on standby at the enhanced MCO area.
It was alleged that they had to wait for several hours before an ambulance took her to a government clinic more than two hours later, where the mother was seen by a doctor, who then sent her home with Folic Acid tablets and advised them to call 999 if she suddenly "felt a lot of blood or discharge".
"We were sent home with Folic Acid tablets and an MC. No ultrasound was done at the Health Clinic to ensure our baby was OK.
"We went home, worried and confused about what had just happened. We weren’t allowed to have our baby scanned nor were we allowed to top up on medications that ran out," he reportedly said.
They learned that his wife had a miscarriage a few days later when they were allowed to go to the private clinic for checks. A different team of police personnel was on duty then.
The husband had also lodged a report with the Enforcement Agency Integrity Commission on the incident. A spokesperson confirmed that they have received the complaint on July 11.
Untrained officer and bureaucracy
When asked if the miscarriage had to do with police not allowing the mother to seek her treatment in time, the Sentul district police chief said that they believe it was not the direct cause.
"We believe it is related, but was not what caused (the miscarriage)," said Beh.
Meanwhile, a medical expert when contacted by Malaysiakini indicated that what happened in the case was a mixture of lack of training and the government's red-tape bureaucracy.
Obstetrics and gynaecologist consultant Dr NKS Tharmaseelan said the police personnel had barred the couple possibly because she is a non-medical frontliner and thus not trained to differentiate emergency and non-emergency medical problems.
"Having the advantage of hindsight, issues on the ground which are situational would be unfair for me to comment upon.
"Most importantly, non-medical frontliners should be trained to know what an emergency is. Added is the additional stress and numbers that they have to deal with," he said.
He added that the female cop, however, had done something right by giving the husband the number of the medical team that was on duty.
On the incident where the woman was taken to a government clinic instead of her usual doctor, Tharmaseelan said this was due to the established protocol by the Health Ministry, where ambulances are not allowed to ferry patients to a private clinic.
This was despite the ambulances being allowed to take patients from private clinics to public hospitals.
"Ambulance delays are perennial, and the Health Ministry should improve on this by having friendly procedures regarding ambulances, which are to be used in emergencies. This was an emergency, and the delay was not reasonable for almost 4 hours.
"Too much red tape. Why ambulances cannot ferry patients to private facilities when ambulances are allowed to ferry patients from private clinics is paradoxical.
"Most importantly in this case the patient should have been allowed to take her own transport to the GP clinic if the ambulance could not do so," he said.
According to Tharmseelan, it is debatable whether seeing the doctor early would have guaranteed the survival of the woman's foetus, given that she had previously suffered a miscarriage.
"But of course, they would have had a better chance. This case with a previous miscarriage was a high-risk case but the police personnel was not trained." - Mkini
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