Autopsy Reveals NS Trainee Dies Of Drowning

PONTIAN, March 1 (Bernama) -- The autopsy on the body of National Service (NS) trainee Prema Elenchelian shows that her death is due to drowning, Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr Chua Soi Lek says.
He said Prema was believed to have been attacked with fits before she drowned in a public toilet at the Kisna Beach Resort Camp in Pasir Puteh, Kelantan.
"Because of the fits and the water was running, she died in the toilet. She was unconscious and her death was due to drowning following the fits," told reporters after attending an open house hosted by MCA president Datuk Seri Ong Ka Ting who is member of Parliament for Tanjung Piai, here today.
Dr Chua who is Johor MCA chairman, said that since the NS training programme began in 2004, 240,000 trainees had participated in it and eight had died while attending the programme.
He said the ministry was always concerned with the trainees' health and expressed sympathy over such tragedy.
"When a death occurs, we understand the family is in grief and sometimes they believe there is a cover-up by the Health Ministry in this matter.
"I would like to stress that there is no attempt to hide anything over what has happened," Dr Chua said.
He said a weakness that had been identified was that the NS trainees often took lightly when filling up questionnaires about their health.
A health examination could only detect visible diseases, so the trainees must be frank about their health problems, he said.
Dr Chua said he would lead a Health Ministry delegation in a meeting with the National Service Board next Monday to discuss on how to enhance of the trainees' health quality.
Among the main topics to be discussed was whether the questionnaire that must be filled by the trainees had to include new items or whether there were ways to detect diseases that were hard to be traced, he said.