Parents still hope for a miracle

and CLIFF BUDDLEFOR Chan Tin-sang and his wife Chu Kam-hing, it is a bittersweet victory. Their daughter has won a $6 million nest egg, but cash is a poor exchange for her damaged mind.

Mr Chan, a driver earning about $10,000 a month, rejoiced at hearing the staggering payout six years after Pui-ki was knocked down by a Kowloon Motor Bus.

'I always believed it was going to be a victorious case,' Mr Chan, 48, said last night. 'It was human negligence, it was not a natural accident.' The couple plan to build a fund, starting with the $6 million awarded to their only daughter by Mr Justice Cheung, that will support her at least until she turns 60.

'If we are not around, she will be getting some money every month until she is old. This guarantees she will have enough to cover monthly expenses,' Mr Chan said.

'But money cannot change what happened. Pui-ki used to be a very lively young girl. Now she isolates herself from other people.' Pui-ki's life changed forever when, as a 10-year-old, she took two steps on to a Sha Tin road on April 22, 1989, and was hit by a bus.

Her parents hovered beside her bed as she lay comatose for 12 days; it was three months before she could leave hospital.

Before the accident, she had been a slim, lively child, popular with her classmates and of above-average intelligence. Now she has an IQ of 86, is obese, clumsy, emotionally unstable and changed schools because she could not face the taunts of classmates.