BOY’S FAMILY TO REQUEST REPORT ON CAUSE OF DEATH

Thaqif’s parents wish to see medical report, says family lawyer

MOHAMAD Thaqif Amin Mohd Gadaffi’s family lawyer will make a formal request to the Health Ministry to obtain a copy of the boy’s full medical report.

Datuk Hishamuddin Hashim, who has been appointed by the family to represent them after Thaqif ’s cause of death was announced recently, said a letter would be submitted to the ministry by today.

“The family wishes to obtain a copy of the medical report that determined Thaqif ’s cause of death.

“This matter was recently published in the media, but the boy’s family have yet to see the report.

“As their counsel, I have been instructed by the family to put in a written request to the Health Ministry to obtain the medical report.

“It is their intention to see it for themselves. They want to be sure and see whether the news that they heard and the announcement made by the ministry was true,” Hishamuddin told the New Straits Times yesterday.

He said as Thaqif ’ s guardians, his parents had the right to see any report or medical evaluation that was done on him.

He said it was only fair that the parents be in the loop.

Thaqif ’s family, he said, must get the full medical report on the boy’s illness, as well as his medical history during his threeweek hospitalisation at Sultan Ismail Hospital prior to his death, before they could seek a second opinion on the findings.

Thaqif ’s mother, Felda Wani Ahmad, 40, said she had spoken with a surgical and forensic specialist from Sultanah Aminah Hospital through the phone on Tuesday, who explained to her about the rare occurrence of the leptospirosis that Thaqif had suffered.

She said her younger sister Dzuraidah Ahmad had, on behalf of the family, gone to the district police headquarters to meet police investigators and a medical specialist about Thaqif ’s medical results.

“My sister called me on her handphone and the medical specialist spoke to me, on speaker.

“He told me that my son had an uncommon form of leptospirosis, based on the findings.

“He said while many people would start showing symptoms of leptospirosis after a week of contracting the bacteria, it was not the case with my son,” said Felda Wani.

She said Thaqif and his cousins visited a recreational area with a swimming pool in Mawai, near Kota Tinggi, during the school holidays at the end of March.

However, the medical specialist she spoke to on Tuesday suggested that it was unlikely that Thaqif contracted the disease during the trip as it was too long ago.

“I accepted his explanation. But, any further action will be discussed between our lawyer and the family,” she said.

Thaqif ’s family said on Tuesday that they were challenging the findings by the Health Ministry, in which leptospirosis was determined as Thaqif ’s cause of death.

Felda Wani said she would seek a second opinion on the ministry’s findings with a private medical facility.

The findings, which was revealed almost three months after his death on April 26, omitted previous claims that the boy’s death was caused by injury, allegedly caused by beatings at a religious school.

A statement issued by Health director-general Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said Thaqif died due to leptospirosis, and that it was complicated by a skin condition called necrosis and congealing of micro-blood in blood vessels, leading to organ failure.