Health minister admits authorities negligence in delays causing 10-yo's death

Relevant authorities were negligent in the delays in providing medical response to the family of young Fathmath Mishka Mohamed, the youngest Covid-19 victim in the Maldives, says Minister of Health Ahmed Naseem.

The health minister admitted that relevant authorities were negligent in the case, during a press briefing held at the Health Emergency Operations Center (HEOC) on Wednesday night.

As such, the minister noted that those who attended the calls made by the family were negligent and that a detailed report of the probes into the case will be publicized on Thursday.

The minister promised that the required action will be taken against those found negligent in the case, once the probe is completed.

Further, the minister also noted that they are reviewing negligence within the healthcare system to seek out those who are reckless in their work and that he will also probe his own negligence.

The ministry announced that they had implemented immediate changes to the policy on deploying ambulances in such cases, after Mishka’s death was reported.

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

The death is also being probed by the Human Rights Commission of the Maldives (HRCM) and the People’s Majlis.

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.