A DAUGHTER is deeply disappointed and angry at the health authorities for allegedly mishandling the case of a Covid-19-infected relative, which resulted in the infection of 10 other family members and the death of one.

Speaking to The Malaysian Insight, Safeena Nasreen, 40, recounts the events that led to the death of her 64-year-old father, Mohd Nazeer Abdul Hameed, who had acute myelogenous leukaemia.

“The Health Ministry’s negligence caused my father’s death and we couldn’t even give him a proper send-off.

“Surprisingly, we have also not seen data of our father’s death being published by MOH despite his death certificate clearly stating he died from Covid-19,” she said.

Safeena’s father was admitted for leukaemia at Ampang Hospital and discharged on January 23.

She said she received a message on January 29 on a WhatsApp group chat that one of the hospital patients had tested positive for Covid-19.

No one from Ampang Hospital notified the family even though her father had been in the same ward as the infected person, she said.

She took her father for a Covid-19 test at a private clinic and later in the evening, to Ampang Hospital, as he was having breathing difficulties.

The hospital, she said, did not check her father for coronavirus but merely sent him home with medication.

Safeena said her father’s condition worsened on January 31 and she called the clinic for his Covid-19 test results.

The results were positive, she said.

“We were worried as he was considered high-risk because of the cancer.

“Once we knew he was positive, we tried calling several numbers given by MoH but didn’t get a response from any of them. Then we called Ampang Hospital, where my father was earlier admitted. To my surprise, they told me that they couldn’t handle the case and told us to wait for MoH to call if he was positive.

“We then contacted Sg Buloh Hospital. Initially, they also gave us the same response as Ampang Hospital. We explained that he had cancer and was a high-risk patient.

“They then told us that they were not able to send an ambulance for him and that someone from our side must send him to the hospital.

“Without delay, my brother drove my father to Sg Buloh Hospital and got him admitted on January 31, 2020.”

Death and infection

Following her father’s infection, Safeena said her entire family underwent screening for the virus at a private clinic.

Ten were found to be infected.

She said it was only on February 2 that the family received a call from the MoH enquiring about her father.

“So, we received this call from MoH on February 2, asking for my father, who was already admitted and battling for his life at the hospital.

“Upon explaining the situation, we, who were his close contacts, were told to get tested at Klinik Kesihatan Selayang on February 3.”

Safeena said she received the news of her father’s death around 4am on February 3.

“We were devastated.

“Just imagine, we, including my mother, couldn’t even attend or be anywhere near to witness my father’s funeral because all of us had to undergo a Covid-19 test.

“We only got to witness the final rites on a video call, made by my brother, who was living separately and had tested negative for Covid-19,””she said, sobbing.

Safeena said her father’s death was not included in the daily statistics that was released by the MoH.

“I don’t know what they are trying to conceal. My father was aged 64 and the cause of death was severe Covid pneumonia with underlying AML.

“I didn’t find this in any of the recent data published by MoH and it has been seven days since his death.”

Safeena said her brother, who sent her father to Sg Buloh Hospital for admission, was among those infected.

Yet even though he was a close contact, he was only ordered to quarantine on February 9.

Safeena said all this could have been avoided if health officials had informed the family about the coronavirus patient in Ampang Hospital, or had given her father prompt treatment for the infection.

She blamed the ministry’s lackadaisical attitude and negligence for her father’s death. – February 15, 2021.