A report on the internal inquiry into an incident in which an elderly patient at Karin Grech Hospital chocked to death on a piece of chicken was never lost, the government said yesterday.
“In fact it is being kept in a controlled and safe place and can he exhibited in court on request,” it said, adding that it wanted to correct what had been reported in the media that it “may have gone missing”.
The government statement was issued in the wake of press reports on a court case against two nurses and a nursing aide who are pleading not guilty to the involuntary homicide of John Darmanin.
Mr Darmanin, 63, was found dead in a hospital lavatory on March 7, 2012. An autopsy report revealed he had died after choking on a piece of chicken despite hospital staff having been prohibited from giving him solid food.
It is being kept in a controlled and safe place
During a court sitting on Thursday before Magistrate Anthony Vella, former government chief medical officer, Natasha Azzopardi Muscat, said that before going to court to testify she had spoken to her successor, Joseph Vella Baldacchino, and asked him for access to the report. However, he informed her that the file with the outcome of the inquiry “could not be found”.
Magistrate Vella ordered the prosecution to use all the means possible to locate the file and exhibit it in court.
When contacted yesterday, Dr Azzopardi Muscat said that after she had testified on the case for the first time she had asked her successor to find any documents connected to the case so she could refresh her memory and testify further and also because the court wanted access to documentation.
When she received a second summons earlier this week, she informed the legal office and asked for assistance in order to be in a position to testify again. Dr Azzopardi Muscat said that until Thursday morning she had not been told that any documents had been traced and, when asked, she informed the court she had not be able to access any documents.
On Thursday afternoon, she said she went back to her former office with details on the case and again asked whether any documents had been traced. She was informed that a copy of the inquiry report was being kept in the chief medical officer’s office. She said she made a written request to peruse the report and her request was accepted.