A suspended judicial medical officer had performed the postmortem examination on three-year-old Mohamed Hamdun Faslin, who died on 28 July at Lady Ridgeway Hospital for Children due to an infection following a kidney surgery.
JMO Ruhul Haq has been suspended from exercising his rights, privileges and immunities conferred upon him by registration as a medical practitioner by the Sri Lanka Medical Council (SLMC).
Colombo additional magistrate Rajindra Jayasuriya has ordered Borella Police to conduct an immediate investigation into the discrepancies between the clinical treatment reports of the child and the postmortem report compiled by Haq.
Police informed the court that the treatment-related reports mentioned that the child had had two kidneys, while the postmortem report mentioned that she had had only one kidney at her birth.
The additional magistrate considered a request made by the attorney and medical practitioner Dr. Y.L.M. Yoosuf who appeared for the aggrieved party.
They request the court to issue an order to initiate an inquiry to ascertain how the JMO's postmortem report mentions that the child had had only one kidney, when the clinical treatment reports reveal that she had had two kidneys.
The director of the LRH has been ordered to immediately submit the relevant clinical treatment reports to the Court.
Haq has been suspended by the SLMC for a period of eight months, with effect from 20 December 2022.
The mother of the deceased child while testifying before court, said that Faslin was born in August 2020, and that she did not have any abnormalities at the time of birth.
However, she said that the child had experienced some complications in her urinary system after nine months since birth.
During this period, the doctors had detected that the child's left kidney was malfunctioning and had recommended removing it.
Dr. Nalin Wijekoon of the LRH had performed the surgery, and the child had developed further urinary complications after the surgery.
When Dr. Wijekoon was informed of the matter by the child's parents, he had told them that the child’s right kidney too had been removed during the surgery and that they would therefore perform a kidney transplant.
The child died on 27 July, and it was revealed thereafter that Dr. Wijekoon had left the country.
