Professor: What was school doing while boy’s legs were turning black?
Prof Mohd Tajuddin Mohd Rasdi raises question of how long it takes before legs that are beaten, as in the case of the Islamic school pupil, turn black.
He was commenting on the case involving 11-year-old private religious school pupil Mohamad Thaqif Amin Mohd Gaddafi, whose legs turned black after he was allegedly beaten by an assistant warden.
Thaqif underwent double amputation of his legs on Friday to prevent infection and according to Bernama, he is scheduled for an amputation of his right arm today.
Federation of National Associations of al-Quran Tahfiz Institutions (Pinta) president Mohd Zahid Mahmood had claimed the boy was only beaten on one sole of his foot, based on the school’s CCTV recording.
Speaking to FMT, prof Mohd Tajuddin Mohd Rasdi of UCSI University raised the question of how long it would have taken for the boy’s legs to turn black, and what the school’s management had been doing all that time.
“I’m not a medical doctor. So, I don’t know how long it would take for the boy’s legs to turn black like that.
“My issue here is that the management and the school’s principal seem to be washing their hands of this affair.”
Tajuddin, who has frequently voiced concern over religious education in Malaysia, said this particular case raised alarm bells as he was reminded of another incident involving a National Service centre (PLKN).
He said in 2012, Sarawak PKR claimed that a sick trainee at Putra Sentosa Camp in Sematan, Kuching, had been left without proper medical attention.
According to the trainee’s mother, the medical assistant initially refused to send her son to hospital but later relented. At the hospital, the youth was only given Panadol, piriton and some antibiotics.
Dissatisfied, the parents fetched the boy from the camp and sent him to a private hospital in Kuching where an X-ray and blood tests were done.
He was put on saline drips and given a nebuliser. He had lost 6kg in weight.
According to the mother, the blood tests showed the boy had a viral infection, which resulted in fever. He spent five days in hospital.
Tajuddin said reports on the case had made PLKN “change its ways”.
“The case involving the Johor boy whose legs turned black is very damaging to tahfiz schools.
“You need to find out when he was first hit and how long it takes for a person’s legs to turn black like that because that’s the smoking gun.
“If a doctor says this takes time, then the question is what was the management doing all that while?”
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