Claims the family of a hospital patient who died were given insufficient information are being investigated. The Hospital Authority is looking into a complaint from the family of Sung Lam Wai-lin, 46, who died on November 11 after an operation last month. Sung died after three weeks of vomiting and being unable to take solid food following surgery to remove a benign tumour in her womb. Relatives yesterday said they were unhappy with medical treatment given at Queen Elizabeth Hospital and said there was a lack of explanation before and after Sung's death. 'When we wanted to ask for more information, they said we had to make an appointment through nurses, which we did, but then they did not get back to us,' Sung's daughter, Man-ying, 18, said. 'I know they took an X-ray of my mother but up to now, I still haven't seen it. And I can't understand why they discharged her if she was not well.' Sung was referred by doctors at the Alice Ho Miu Ling Nethersole Hospital in Tai Po to undergo the tumour removal operation at the Queen Elizabeth on October 20. She was discharged eight days later. She died on November 11, hours after undergoing an emergency operation at Nethersole Hospital to repair an intestinal tear. Sung's husband, Sung Keing-yeung, 54, said: 'The hospital called at 5am and asked us to go and see her for the last time. 'Doctors said the main cause of death was a hole in her intestines.' Two members of the Hospital Authority's public complaints committee met Mr Sung and his daughter yesterday. The authority said it would follow up on the case. The family will meet staff of both hospitals at Nethersole Hospital tomorrow, where reports of X-rays and a full explanation are expected to be given.
