Motion submitted to parliament over death of 10-yo, caused by negligence

A motion regarding the death of a 10-year-old due to the negligence of relevant authorities, has been submitted to the People’s Majlis.

The motion was submitted by MP for south-Mahchangoalhi constituency, Ahmed Haitham who has urged for swift probes into the delays in emergency healthcare services to the people. The MP revealed that authorities must investigate whether or not they have the capacity to provide healthcare to the entire population of Malé City and if they have the required materials and equipment to do so.

Submitting the motion, the parliamentarian also revealed that the relevant authorities who should be held accountable for this case, must be questioned.

With this being said, the parliamentarian urged to summon relevant authorities to the relevant committee for questioning, before another such incident takes yet another life.

Highlighting that this is not the first time a life was lost due to delays in providing healthcare, the MP said that there had been spiraling concerns and complaints from the public due to delays in emergency healthcare provision way before the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Fathmath Mishka Mohamed, 10 and native to Kulhudhuffushi City in Haa Dhaal atoll was pronounced the youngest victim of Covid-19 in the Maldives on June 1.

The child’s family reported that they first phoned for an ambulance at 9pm, after Mishka’s health deteriorated on the night of May 31. She was reported stable before she started to get breathing difficulties, that was the seventh day since Mishka tested positive for Covid-19.

Despite the family having made several calls and begged for a quicker response, the ambulance arrived over two hours later at around 11:40pm. The family is to have cited that they had also contacted Indhira Gandhi Memorial Hospital (IGMH) on providing ambulance services. They had rejected their request as the victim was positive to coronavirus. The child’s family is to have received the same response to their repeated calls, “we have informed the medical team, they will be there shortly”.

The family is to have revealed that the child had collapsed and started bleeding from her nose and mouth by the time the ambulance arrived. She is to have gotten a heart attack and suffered internal bleeding.

It has been revealed that it took 20 minutes of CPR to revive Mishka in the Emergency Room, however by then her brain stopped due to an “unknown” period of unresponsiveness, following which she was put on ventilator support.

Mishka died 24 hours later, on June 1 and was pronounced the 170th Covid-19 victim in the Maldives.

Although she did not have any underlying medical conditions, she was diagnosed with ADHD. The Ministry of Health revealed that “immediate” changes had been brought to the mechanism on deploying ambulance services following the incident. This was revealed through Twitter.