DG Hisham: COVID-19 Frontline Doctor Died From Underlying Conditions And Not Fatigue
A family member of the deceased said that he fell in a toilet while working which led to internal bleeding followed by several surgeries.
By Arisha Rozaidee — 20 Jan 2021, 12:53 PM
News of a doctor who died from exhaustion in Kuala Lumpur recently made its rounds on social media.
However, health director-general Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah has refuted the claims.
Skuad Pengurusan Jenazah Malaysia (SPJ Malaysia) is a local non-profit organisation (NGO) that handles Islamic and non-Islamic funerals around the clock. They wrote about the doctor's death on their Facebook page as he was a former member of their NGO.
The post read, "We just received the news regarding the death of Dr Ali Noor Hassan through his Facebook. The deceased was a registered member of SPJ Malaysia and has followed the organisation since 2018 after joining a funeral management course at Surau Quba in Sentul two years ago."
"This is the last photo of him taken by his friend before he fell sick due to the workload, [he] was too tired and exhausted and lacked time to rest after working the frontline with the Ministry of Health (MOH) in combating COVID-19," they added.
"He fell asleep while on the job and collapsed."
The post has since garnered over 2,200 comments and 750 shares.
Dr Noor Hisham confirmed the death but said that it had nothing to do with his workload. The doctor passed away on 18 January.
When contacted by Harian Metro, Dr Noor Hisham said, "He was found to have underlying conditions and it had no correlation with fatigue from work. His COVID-19 test results came back negative."
Meanwhile, the Malay daily also spoke to a family member of the deceased and they noted that he fell in a toilet while working which led to internal bleeding followed by several surgeries.
"The deceased is my nephew and he died because he fell in the toilet. Please correct your facts," they said.
In a tweet, Dr Noor Hisham wrote, "Condolences for the entire family of the late Dr Ali Noor bin Hassan. He was admitted to Kuala Lumpur Hospital (HKL) since December due to underlying conditions and had undergone several treatment sessions. Al-Fatihah."
On 8 December, Dr Ali's wife announced that he had been admitted to HKL and was in stable condition.
However, the following post on 18 January came right before his death and it stated that he was in critical condition.
On Tuesday, 19 January, she wrote, "Assalamualaikum. My husband Dr Ali Noor Hassan has returned to meet his creator just now. The body will be handled at the Bandar Tun Hussein mosque at 10am and he will be buried at the Bandar Tun Hussein Onn cemetery. If there are any debts that have yet to be claimed, please privately message me (his wife)."
