SUN HUIHUA EXPECTED to undergo a routine operation when she entered the Shenzhen Women's and Children's Hospital in 1998. Instead, the minor surgery to remove a benign tumour from her uterus led to her being hospitalised for six months, sacked from her job and still tired and sick as a result of an operation that went horribly wrong.
Ms Sun and 45 others are now suing the government-run hospital in a case that could set a legal precedent, as they are demanding a record total of 26 million yuan (about HK$24.3 million) in compensation. But they have a long battle ahead. There have already been casualties - initially more than 100 patients wanted to take court action, but many dropped out because of a lack of faith in the tortuous judicial process. Some have accepted small sums of money from the hospital.
For Ms Sun, who moved from the north to the special economic zone in the 1980s, her nightmare started a few days after the operation. The wound became painful, red, swollen and infected. She met other patients, women and children, who had the same problem. But only when they were readmitted to the hospital did they realise how serious the situation was. Ms Sun ended up being hospitalised for six months, during which time the staff tried various methods of treatment and drugs on her.
The number of confused patients returning for treatment peaked in June 1998, and eventually up to 200 patients were known to have been infected with a hospital-wide bug. But no one realised the cause of their plight until a probe was undertaken at the hospital in summer 1998. The investigation found that the disinfectant that staff had been using to sterilise surgical instruments had been diluted way beyond the required standard, so exposing patients to various degrees of infection during their operations.
Two medical staff and the former hospital chief were held responsible for the infection crisis and sacked, but a government medical council ruled that compensation for medical negligence was not justified. At the end of 1998, the hospital offered payments ranging between 10,000 yuan and 70,000 yuan to some patients. But others, including Ms Sun, were unwilling to accept this limited offer, which did not cover the consequences of their illness.
Soon after the operation, Ms Sun was laid off from her job in a cost-cutting exercise at a state-run guest house. She believes she was targeted because of her deteriorating health. Now she runs a small grocery store in the residential quarters for technical staff in the Futian Trade Zone, an area catering for foreign enterprises. Her family, including her two primary school-age children, also live in the district. She is seeking 390,000 yuan.
