Court rules girl’s death due to cardiac arrest

While delivering the order at the magisterial inquest into the questionable death of a fiveyear-old girl at the Nawaloka Hospital in Colombo, the Colombo Fort Magistrate yesterday ruled that the cause of death was due to cardiac arrest and death of brain stems after switching off the ventilation.

While ordering to issue the death certificate of the deceased to her parents, the Magistrate observed that according to the provisions of the Criminal Procedure Code and the New Law Reports Volume 71 (349), the Magistrate’s Court should decide the cause of the death taking into consideration the evidence given by the Judicial Medical Officer and his report over the post mortem examination.

The Colombo Judicial Medical Officer Dr. D.M.N. Ruhul Haq testifying at the inquest into the death of the five-year-old girl Buddhini Kaushalya Ratnayake, informed Court that the cause of death was due to a cardiac arrest and the pathological reason for the cardiac arrest was not detected at the autopsy.

He further said the allegations brought by the parents of the child over a medical mismanagement have to be investigated sthrough the Ministry of Health.

In this case, the parents of the deceased child lodging a complaint with Slave Island police complained that their five-year-old died in the MRI scanning machine at the hospital due to the negligence of the hospital.