A woman's death shortly after she had a kidney stone operation was not caused by the surgery, the Coroner's Court found yesterday.
Mother-of two Man Oi-hing, 60, a garden manager, was ruled to have died of natural causes at Tuen Mun Hospital in May last year. Man's family suspected the operation led to her death because it left a small bit of the stone in her urinary system.
They wondered if the fragment created an obstruction, leading to bacterial infection and death.
But expert witness Professor Anthony Ng Chi-fai, a urology specialist at Chinese University, said the surgical procedures were carried out correctly. He told the inquest that since the stone fragment was smaller than 5mm, the body could have discharged it naturally.
Coroner Wong Wai-kuen noted yesterday that another obstruction in Man's body was not in the same place as the speck of kidney stone.
It was caused by blood clots that formed after the surgery, Wong said.