A judge has awarded more than $2 million to the estate of a Light Rail crash victim who suffered 'absolute misery' before dying from an illness that attacked her nervous system.
Ku Lai-kwan, 38, a garment worker, suffered serious injuries in the 1994 crash in Tuen Mun. But they were not life-threatening and had appeared to be healing, said Mr Justice Conrad Seagroatt.
However, within three or four months of the accident her health began to decline and continued to worsen until she died in March last year.
'It is impossible to appreciate the state of hopelessness and despair which must have set in,' Mr Justice Seagroatt said.
'Persistent decline, dependency on others, little if any realistic hope of relief, must have made her life one of absolute misery, however resilient her nature.
'She must have known too that there was never any realistic chance of reversing her state and responsible medical opinion could never have held that out to her as a possibility.' The judge ruled a chain of events started by the crash, including tetanus injections, were responsible for Ku developing Devic's syndrome, which led to blindness and paraplegia.