HONG KONG OXYGEN has admitted wrongly labelling medical gas delivered to hospitals last week, six years after a similar error led to the death of a patient at the Canossa Hospital.
Staff at the United Christian Hospital and St Teresa's Hospital raised the alarm after discovering that cylinders labelled 'medical air' actually contained carbon dioxide.
Health and Fire Services officials yesterday asked Hong Kong Oxygen to launch an immediate inquiry to discover how the 10 bottles were mislabelled.
'We are asking Hong Kong Oxygen to give a comprehensive, full, investigative report to the Department of Health and ourselves,' said Fire Prevention Bureau chief Lam Chun-man, whose department licenses gas storage.
'The label said 'air' but the cylinders were for carbon dioxide and the contents were carbon dioxide.
'They were delivered to hospitals and discovered by hospital staff.' In January 1989, restaurant critic Shirley Boyde, 55, died after receiving almost-pure nitrogen from a Hong Kong Oxygen bottle labelled 'oxygen'.
Six months later, three pregnant women at the Caritas Medical Centre were given carbon dioxide from a bottle marked 'nitrous oxide', which was also supplied by the company.