Justice Akhtar Tahir awarded Nur Amalina Ismail and her husband, Syed Afi Said Merah, RM500,000 in exemplary damages on top of RM200,000 for pain and suffering.

The couple, represented by Farhana Abdul Halim, was also awarded RM30,000 in costs.

The judge said there was an inordinate delay on the part of the doctor who attended to Nur Amalina which resulted in the complications the infant suffered leading to death.

“There was no plausible explanation for this delay apart from the nonchalant attitude of the doctor with regard to her duties,” he said in his written grounds released yesterday.

Akhtar said he considered the doctor’s attitude as leaning towards “recklessness and criminal negligence”.

“As a lesson to medical professionals carrying out their duties, a clear message has to be conveyed that such an attitude cannot be tolerated, especially if it leads to death,” he said.

The judge said there was no necessity to adduce evidence to prove the pain, suffering and depression suffered by parents who had lost their firstborn.

“This loss is difficult to quantify in monetary terms as there is no fixed formula to assess such a loss,” he said.

The oral decision was delivered on Jan 17 after the doctor and Hospital Pusrawi Sdn Bhd, the second defendant, conceded liability.

The defendants, represented by Razlan Hadri Zulkifli and P Tishondra, have appealed the quantum to the Court of Appeal.

The judge said Nur Amalina suffered distress after her water bag burst on Nov 6, 2016 while at the hospital to deliver her baby.

He said the doctor left it to the hospital nurses to deal with the distress and only visited Nur Amalina the next day.

On examining Nur Amalina, the doctor directed an emergency operation to be carried out.

Upon delivery, it was discovered that the umbilical cord had strangled the child, resulting in death a day after the infant’s birth.