Surgeon's solo operation killed patient, lawsuit claims

A doctor killed a patient by performing surgery with a machine that could not properly be used alone, a writ claims.

The High Court writ filed yesterday says Dr Jennie Ng Ching-wah accidentally punctured a 33-year-old woman's bowel wall, allowing germs to seep into her stomach and infect it.

It claims the doctor was inexperienced and untrained in both the surgery and surgical equipment.

The writ claims the doctor operated with only an anaesthetist.

The patient, accounts clerk Amy Ng Lai-kuen, died a week later. The dead woman's husband, Lai Ming-Shui, 34, and her mother, Tang Fu, 62, are suing Dr Ng for more than $1.3 million.

Amy Ng was admitted to the Hong Kong Sanatorium and Hospital on May 14 last year for a large tumour to be cut from her uterus, the writ says.