Doctor denies manslaughter of woman seeking abortion
Court hears gynaecologist gave his patient a drug he had not used before
A pregnant woman being prepared for an illegal abortion died of an overdose after her gynaecologist injected her with a drug he had never used before, a court was told yesterday.
The doctor also lacked the equipment to resuscitate the patient when the procedure went wrong, prosecutor John Reading told the Court of First Instance.
Harry Sudirman, also known as Harry Sim Hok-gwan, 63, pleaded not guilty to manslaughter over the death of Zenaida Colminar Chu, 31, and to using an instrument with intent to procure a miscarriage at his clinic in Melbourne Plaza, Queen's Road, Central.
Mr Reading told the court Sudirman had been grossly negligent. '[Chu] had placed her trust in [Sudirman] as a highly qualified physician and gynaecologist,' he said. 'It was the first time he used that drug. It carried detailed instructions for him to use.'
Mr Reading said that, despite the overdose, Chu's life could have been saved had Sudirman stocked his surgery with appropriate resuscitation equipment.
The court heard that on January 5, 2001, Chu, the mother of a boy, now aged 10, went to Sudirman's clinic after discovering she was about five weeks' pregnant.
A receptionist for the American Club at Tai Tam, she told Sudirman she was too old to have another child and could not afford to raise one.
'She said, 'Can you do something about it?' [The doctor] paused, then said, 'Yes',' Mr Reading said. Chu returned three days later, having agreed to pay Sudirman $5,000.
At 11.15am, Sudirman directed his nurse to mix one millilitre of water with remifentanil and a sedative, dormicum, Mr Reading said. Experts will testify as to the properties of remifentanil and its connection with the overdose.
He said the remifentanil was a sample given to the clinic by a drug company in December 1999.
The nurse saw Chu's arm drop off the side of the bed and found her pulse was weak, Mr Reading said. Sudirman immediately began resuscitation, and told his nurse to run to the neighbouring clinic and summon the help of another doctor, who returned with his own nurse and a heart monitor.
The court heard Sudirman was unable to follow his fellow doctor's advice to inject adrenalin directly into Chu's heart because he had no long needles in the surgery that could penetrate the chest cavity.
An ambulance was called and Chu was taken to Queen Mary Hospital, where she was declared dead just before 2pm.
The prosecutor said equipment taken from Sudirman's surgery had no trace of material from Chu's uterus. All instruments had been cleaned and sterilised.
Mr Reading said when police interviewed Sudirman, he told them a test had shown Chu had not been pregnant and that he had been performing a procedure called 'dilate and curettage' to remove polyps, or growths, from the birth canal.
The trial continues tomorrow.
