Tensions flare at Ivana inquest as witness defends pre-autopsy SOP
KUALA LUMPUR: The inquest into the death of Dutch model Ivana Smit turned tense at the Coroner’s Court here today after a witness disagreed with the family’s counsel that standard operating procedures (SOP) were not followed before her autopsy.
The exchange took place between forensics medicine specialist Dr Nurliza Abdullah, who supervised Smit’s post-mortem on Dec 8 last year, and SN Nair, the watching brief lawyer for the Smits.
During his witness examination, Nair asked Nurliza why the health ministry’s 2012 SOP on forensic medicine services had not been followed when the body arrived at the Kuala Lumpur Hospital morgue on the evening of Dec 7.
Nair said a body must always be physically examined before anything else, which Nurliza said had not been done.
Citing subsection 12.2.2 of the document, Nair asked why a preliminary investigation was not carried out while Smit’s body was still in the body bag, according to SOP. Instead, her body had gone through a computer tomography (CT) scan and was put into a freezer after being registered in the system.
Nurliza said the CT scan was the hospital’s protocol and not part of ministry regulations. She also disagreed that the SOP in the 2012 paper specified that a physical examination must be carried out immediately upon the body’s arrival, saying this only had to be done before the start of the post-mortem.
She said when the autopsy was done at noon the next day, SOP was followed and a preliminary examination of the body and when rigor mortis took place was done by her team.
She disagreed with Nair that an initial examination of Smit’s body was not done by the forensics paramedics on call on Dec 7, adding that she was not at work then.
“When I said an initial examination, I meant the CT scan imaging of the body while still in the body bag qualified as an initial examination,” she said through a court interpreter.
The autopsy was conducted 18 hours after Smit’s body arrived at the morgue.
Section 12 of the SOP, which deals with the control of contamination of DNA before post-mortems, does not specify when a physical examination must be made.
However, it states that the body must be examined while in the bag and photographed if needed, with clothing to be removed and packed but only prior to “proceeding with the forensic post-mortem examination”.
Nair told Nurliza she had “misinterpreted” the SOP by failing to conduct a physical examination upon the body’s arrival, to determine if rigor mortis had taken place, and to rule that Smit was dead.
Nurliza however disagreed that this was “important” or part of the SOP required of paramedics.
When asked if it would have been better if the body was examined upon arrival for when rigor mortis took place – commonly done to determine an approximate window for time of death – Nurliza said even with the delay in autopsy, an estimated time for rigor mortis could still be assumed.
She previously put the time of death at around noon on Dec 7.
Today, she said the “early stages” of rigor mortis could not be determined just be examining the body upon arrival as suggested by Nair. She said post-mortem rigidity was only one of several factors that could indicate the exact time of of death.
Nair lambasted Nurliza several times today for “contradicting herself” on record and failing to give clear-cut answers to his questions. Nurliza however said she was giving specific answers and denied that she was fibbing or misleading the court.
At one point, Nair also took her to task for “being very difficult” in answering his questions, causing coroner Mahyon Talib to advise him to calm down. Mahyon also told Nurliza to answer the questions and not to sidetrack from the lawyer’s line of query.
Nair had also asked why Nurliza, despite receiving formal education abroad, insisted on speaking only Bahasa Malaysia during her testimony.
He said the proceedings were being carried out in English for the sake of Smit’s family, who come from the Netherlands.
Nurliza said Malay was the national language, adding that she was more comfortable speaking Malay than English. She also said she often spoke in Malay when giving court testimonies.
Deputy public prosecutor N Joy Jothi, upon learning that Smit’s body arrived at 5.50pm and was only put in the freezer at 8.45pm, asked why it had been left to wait almost three hours for CT scanning.
She said she found this odd as Nurliza had said CT scans take only 10 to 15 minutes.
However, Nurliza said this was normal, adding that there was nothing wrong with the delay.
She also said the body had been kept in an air-conditioned room and was put into a freezer after the scan.
Today is the 17th day of the inquest, which is underway to determine the facts and events leading up to Smit’s sudden death and whether there is enough evidence to reopen the case and bring it to trial.
Nurliza is the 21st witness to testify, and will continue giving her testimony on Wednesday when the inquest resumes.
Smit’s body was found sprawled in the nude on a sixth-floor balcony at CapSquare Residences, off Jalan Dang Wangi in Kuala Lumpur. She was 18.
She is believed to have fallen from a 20th-floor condo unit belonging to an American-Kazakh couple she had befriended and was staying with on the morning of her death.
The police originally classified the case as sudden death, but it was re-opened this year after pressure from Smit’s family, who claimed there were elements of foul play and cover-up.
Tensions flare at Ivana inquest as witness defends pre-autopsy SOP