The daughter of a kidney cancer patient said last night she would launch a civil lawsuit against a surgeon cleared of attempting a wrong operation on her mother.
Dr Lam Kin-fai was cleared yesterday by the Medical Council of performing an inappropriate operation on Maly Wang Fong-heng, 67, on June 18 last year. The woman died 40 days later.
Council chairman Professor Felice Lieh-mak dismissed the case at a brief hearing, saying: 'The facts alleged to Dr Lam Kin-fai have not been proved to the satisfaction of the council.' The operation was conducted after Dr Lam convinced the woman's family members that by removing the bulk of the tumour, pain that Wang reported would be eased.
But the surgery was aborted before completion because of excessive bleeding around the tumour, which Dr Lam said he could not have been expected to foresee.
The woman's daughter, Chow Oi-chun, said her mother was not in pain before the operation. But she was bedridden and in pain up to her death more than a month later, she said.
'It is so unfair,' Ms Chow said.
