DOCTORS' efforts to save a severely retarded man who had swallowed a fish-bone were hampered by his inability to communicate.
Liu Chi-wai, 20, died on December 17, 1993, a day after he was discharged from Tuen Mun Hospital.
His father, Liu Shek-ying, told the Coroner's Court that his son should not have been released from hospital and that the bone should have been detected.
'I believe that the hospital did not provide sufficient care,' Mr Liu said. 'How could my son have been discharged from hospital when he was so thin?' But Coroner Warner Banks said there was not enough evidence to establish a verdict of death by neglect.
'It is not the role of this court to evaluate the standard of medical care given,' he said.
The Coroner noted that Liu's inability to communicate, combined with the unusual location of the fish-bone, complicated doctors' efforts to discover the reason for his illness.