Roopan died a day after he was discharged from the Kajang Hospital.
Testifying before coroner Rasyihah Ghazali today, Dr T Poven said Roopan had been sent to his ward for discharge on June 20, 2021.
He said he had reviewed the results of various tests conducted on Roopan as listed in the investigation report prior to the discharge.
However, the D-Dimer test was not listed in the report, he said.
“If the D-Dimer (test) was raised in the report, I would have asked for a second opinion from the attending specialist (before discharging Roopan),” said Poven.
A D-Dimer test is administered to check if a patient has a blood-clotting disorder.
A normal D-Dimer reading would be 0.5, whereas Roopan’s test returned a reading of 17.97.
A pathologist had testified that Roopan died of a pulmonary embolism (PE) which originated from a blood clot in his left leg.
A PE occurs when a blood clot travels from the leg to the lung and blocks blood flow, which may lead to death.
Poven agreed that Roopan could have been saved if the hospital had detected the blood clot while he was still warded.
“It depends on the size of the clot,” the doctor said when questioned by the family’s lawyer, T Shashi Devan.
“If it’s large, it is detectable on the CT scan.
“You would need to treat it, of course, because if it is not treated, the patient would die,” said Poven.
However, Poven said a doctor could not rely solely on the D-Dimer indicator to justify ordering a CT scan. The doctor would also have to take into account other medical conditions which the patient might be suffering from and his response to treatment.
Poven was unsure whether the unknown medical officer who ordered the test did so to rule out PE or whether it was related to Covid-19.
He, however, agreed that he would have enquired who ordered the D-Dimer test if it had been mentioned in the report.
Poven also claimed that a few hours prior to his discharge, Roopan’s condition was stable and that he was able to speak in full sentences and breathe normally.
He also testified that Roopan was given antibiotics to treat a lung infection for the next four days.
Roopan died in prison the following day, June 21, 2021, eight days before the hearing of his appeal in a 2013 murder case. He was 25.
The inquest continues on April 17.