Case review of 10-year old's death still underway, Ministry says more time needed

The Health Ministry of the Maldives has stated that the case review to look into possible negligence in the death of a ten-year-old COVID-19 patient in the Maldives is still underway and not completed. 

The Ministry tweeted around an hour ago that there were a lot of work to be done in the case review of the ten-year-old, who has been identified as Mariyam Mishka Mohamed, which required a lot of time. The Ministry stated that officials were working to conclude the review as soon as possible. 

The statement comes after Health Minister Ahmed Naseem said on Wednesday night, that the case review in the death of Mishka was completed and details would be announced on Thursday. 

Massive public outrage was observed regarding the death of Mishka, after the family revealed that the authorities had failed to dispatch an ambulance for more than two hours, after repeated requests. Many even called for the resignation of Minister Naseem over the case. 

Mishka tested positive for COVID-19 along with her family who were in quarantine in their residence. The child's condition deteriorated on the seventh day (Last Tuesday) of testing positive, according to the family. 

The family said that on the night of the seventh day, Mishka developed breathing difficulties, and started bleeding from the nose. She was taken to the Emergency Room of the IGMH, and was pronounced dead at 12:10. 

The family later revealed that they had made multiple appeals to the HPA and even the IGMH for an ambulance starting from 21:00 on Tuesday night when Mishka's condition began to deteriorate. Despite multiple efforts for an ambulance, an ambulance finally came around 23:40, more than two hours after the family's first request.

The Ministry had announced changes to the ambulance deployment policies and procedures following the incident. However, details of the procedure changes were not disclosed. In a press conference on Wednesday night, Minister Naseem also refused multiple questions by journalists regarding the ambulance deployment SOP changes. 

Minister Naseem has previously said that there was negligence in the case. The Minister said that he would not hesitate to resign if there was negligence on his part. He said that the negligence case would be overseen by him.