Materia Medica Malaysiana

Make sure you have enough blood, hospitals told

KUALA LUMPUR: All hospitals, private or Government, must ensure that they have enough stock in their respective blood banks.

Deputy Health Minister Datuk Dr Abdul Latiff Ahmad told The Malay Mail that hospitals can open accounts with the National Blood Bank in case they run short of supply.

Dr Abdul Latiff was commenting on the woman who bled to death after delivering a baby at a private hospital in Kuala Lumpur last Saturday.

“Patients choose hospitals of their liking for many reasons. It is the responsibility of the hospital concerned to see to the patient’s needs,” he said, adding that this death could have been avoided if the hospital had taken steps to deal with any eventuality.

"In this case, the hospital should have ensured they had enough supply in its blood bank.

“Private hospitals should not think of only making profits.”

Dr Abdul Latiff said he is waiting for a report on the incident from the hospital concerned.

He said cases of mothers bleeding to death after a delivery is very rare in Malaysia. Statistics show such incidents occur in about six to seven out of 100,000 deliveries.

Dr Abdul Latiff said Malaysia has among the lowest rate of deaths after delivery in the world.

Last Saturday, Zou Huiyi, 28, died after giving birth to a baby boy, her first child.

It was reported that she bled after the delivery and the private hospital did not have enough supply in its blood bank.

She was rushed to the Kuala Lumpur Hospital but died 15 minutes after admission.

Her baby is said to be healthy.

Zou’s husband, Huang Dexiang, 31, could not be reached for comment.

It was also reported that the couple got married in November last year and was warned by doctors that Zou may not be able to deliver naturally as her uterus was sagging.

Zou was taken to the hospital at 9pm on Friday and doctors said they would have to induce the birth.

About 4pm the next day, nurses told Huang that Zou's cervix was still not dilated enough. Four hours later, she was ready for birth.

Huang left his wife for about 10 minutes to fetch his mother and when he came back, he was told that the delivery was successful but Zou was in a serious state.

An hour later, he was informed that she had lost a lot of blood and that he should rush her to the KLH.