Paediatric doctor accused of needless leg surgery
A doctor is accused of professional misconduct for performing allegedly unnecessary surgery on a 16-month-old child with a broken leg.
The boy, Liu Lap-yu, who had just learned to walk, broke his right thigh bone after falling from a metre-high platform in a playground in October 2008.
Li Yun-hoi, a paediatric orthopaedician at Hong Kong Adventist Hospital, suggested inserting metal rods into Liu's bone, as a cast did not improve the situation. Liu King-yu, the boy's father, consented to Li's suggestion.
However, Li was told that the surgery might have been unnecessary, following consultations with other doctors. In February, 2009, Liu filed a complaint with the Medical Council.
'I felt agony in my heart,' Liu said in his testimony at the council yesterday.
'I was very disappointed in Dr Li and I felt guilty.'
The boy is now able to walk and run, although his right leg is weaker than the left. Liu said he believed the surgery could have been avoided and that his son experienced needless pain during the surgery.
Having heard Li was a paediatric specialist, Liu, who then worked in the same hospital as Li, sought treatment from Li for his son.
Dr Chow Wang, a former colleague of Li and the current head of the paediatric orthopaedics department at the Duchess of Kent Hospital, said it was not unusual for deformities to appear after a cast was placed. However, Chow said he would redo the cast for patients of the boy's age, as they have the ability to heal well.
'I am surprised that without further attempts to improve the alignment, Dr Li would go for [pin] surgery,' Chow said.
However, defence witness Professor Leung Ping Chung, emeritus professor of orthopaedics and traumatology at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, wrote in his letter to the council that Li's decision was acceptable in the situation. Chow disagreed.
The hearing was adjourned yesterday and will reopen at a date yet to be announced.
