The head of Singapore General Hospital’s neurosurgery department failed to report a patient’s death to the coroner in 2024 and is being investigated.
Jai Prashanth Rao, who is also a senior consultant neurosurgeon at the National Neuroscience Institute (NNI), acknowledged this in court on Oct 14.
It was the first day of a coroner’s inquiry into the death of Jai’s patient, Tan Suan Lin, 75.
CNA reported she had a large brain tumour, and that he had operated on her.
Jai testified he had initially told her family members he had to report the case to the coroner, as required by law.
However, the court heard they did not want the woman’s body to undergo an autopsy and sustain further cuts.
Jai said that out of compassion, he decided to give the family closure and issued a death certificate instead.
He said: “Probably my heart overruled my brain.”
Jai said he had been under the mistaken impression that only deaths occurring within 24 hours of surgery required mandatory reporting to the coroner.
He assumed he had discretion over whether to report the death.
The death certificate stated the cause of death as “malignant neoplasm – brain, unspecified”, which Jai said was intended to indicate that Tan had died of a brain tumour.
However, a forensic pathologist from the Health Sciences Authority indicated that a possible cause of death was instead bleeding complications during surgical intervention for the tumour.
NNI informed the coroner about the case in February 2025, and the police were alerted the following month.
No autopsy was performed due to the delay.
On Oct 14, investigation officer Benedict Lim testified that Tan had a brain tumour.
Jai attended to her, and she agreed to undergo brain surgery on Jan 3, 2024.
However, the medical team later faced difficulties in stopping the bleeding during the operation.
Tan lost about three litres of blood.
Jai stopped the operation, and told Tan’s family about her poor prognosis.
She died six days later.
An independent expert witness, who was called by the state, told the court it was obvious to him that the case should have been reported to the coroner, but said he empathised with Jai.
The expert said: “Yes, the death should have been reported because that is in our training and experience from the time we started this speciality; that has been one of the things that is highlighted.
“However, the academic knowledge of it sometimes can be marred by emotions.”
State Coroner Adam Nakhoda will give his findings at a later date.
