Forensics at HTAR

I'm at home in JB. Ayah and mak came to KL yesterday because ayah had to give a lecture so they picked me up from kak yung's house. it's been a month since the last time i was at home.

Last week, i had to my forensics posting at Hospital tengku Ampuan Rahmah, Klang. Why did i choose Klang? Because 1) Hosp Tun Aminah in JB was not among the options, 2) i wanted to stay at kak yung's place in shah alam and all my shah alam friends chose klang.

in the end, kak yung couldn't send me every morning to the hospital because of the terrible morning traffic jams and i had to request to stay at the hospital hostel. my friend, fatimah whose house is in bangi also had to stay at the hostel. so, on sunday afternoon, kak yung sent me to the hostel. the room was tolerable and in a fair condition but i figured pak andak's house would certainly be better (pak andak is ayah's older brother). ayah was the one who didn't want to contact pak andak earlier otherwise i didn't have to request for the hostel in the firts place.

mak andak was very warm and welcoming. she said that my friend could stay there as well. it was an offer i found very hard to refuse. what with sahur and iftar being no more of a concern with comfortable lodgings and clean toilets, i was so staying at my uncle's.

pak andak sent me to the Forensics Department every morning. on the first day, we went out especially early as i didn't want to be late. however the doctor was a bit late. the forensics pathologist in charge is Dr Khairul Azman.

there was no deaths requiring post mortems on Monday so the doctor called us into his office and asked us about ourselves. apparently he's into religious studies and he talked a lot on that.

the next day, there were 2 cases. the first guy, a 40 year old malay man, died after being struck to the head by a 1-tonne container. the 2nd guy, a 60 year old indian man was involved in a hit and run in front of his house. we observed the medical officer do the post mortem and filled in the details in our logbooks. we just needed 2 cases but we still had to complete five days of the posting.

on wednesday and thursday there were no cases much to our dismay. it's not that we wanted people to die but we wanted to learn whilst we had the opportunity to do it. instead, the dr khairul discussed with us salient points in forensics and also previous cases that he used to handle. agak menarik jugak the cases. he was quite happy that we could answer a lot of his questions :)

and on friday there were 3 cases. first case, a 38 year old chinese man complained of chest pain and went to a GP. an ECG was done which revealed some ischaemic changes. he died after a few minutes. the second case, a 42 year old indian lady, non-smoker, non-alcoholic complained of shortness of breath and went to a GP. she died shortly after that. the third case was of an indonesian baby boy who was delivered at home and died at birth. the baby was in a breach position at labour.

after the post mortem was done, the first guy was found to have a myocardial infarction of the left anterior descending artery with pulmonary oedema. the 2nd lady was found to have a thrombus in her left ventricle obstructing the mitral valve. her liver also showed chronic venous congestion. she also had pulmonary oedema. the last case, the baby boy, was confirmed to be a fresh stillbirth. his scrotum was swollen indicating that they came out first. otherwise, the lungs had not yet expanded.

observing all 5 post mortems was a new experience. it may seem to be mean and cruel but it has to be done to determine the cause of death. the extent of what needs to be cut open depends on the history of the patient. the doctor decides which procedure is necessary. if someone was hit on the head, than just opening up the skull is required etc. alhamdulillah, there were no decomposed bodies. i don't think my nose could stand the stench.

it's important for a medical officer to know how to perform a post-mortem because when they are posted to the district areas they'll have to do it themselves. menakutkan. the medical assistants were very skilled. the medical officer merely gave instructions and observed him do most of the cutting.

may Allah give me the courage and confidence to do a post mortem when i have to do it in future.

at the waiting area of the Forensics Department

case discussions with the wonderful and nice dr khairul

with some of the staff

all set to observe the postmortem being done

with my nieces, Zulaikha and Zahidah and nephew, Danish