A doctor did not keep proper records and failed to monitor the amount of anaesthetics given to a patient who woke up during surgery, he admitted to the Medical Council yesterday.
It was the second day of a disciplinary hearing against anaesthetist Dr Edmund Bernard Chan, who is charged with professional misconduct for failing to provide adequate anaesthesia and failing to take adequate steps to ensure the anaesthesia machine was functioning properly.
The patient, Ms Y, told the first day of the hearing that when she woke, she heard people talking, felt an incision being made in her abdomen and that 'something was moving' there. She felt intense pain and could not move nor open her eyes. Ms Y had the surgery on August 26, 2006, at St Teresa's Hospital, Kowloon City, for ovarian bleeding and appendicitis.
'I heard people saying 'So much blood! Quickly take some pictures!' Then I fainted,' she said.
She complained to the hospital and had a meeting with Chan on August 28 at which he said some people required extra anaesthetic, and that she should tell doctors she had had such an experience. Ms Y said she never had an official reply from the hospital and decided to report the case to the Medical Council.
Chan told yesterday's hearing that a hospital investigation later found the anaesthesia machine had malfunctioned during the surgery.