bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

articlePageQuery

filter

article

articleBaseAdvertisingInfoArticle

articleListArticle

articleSeoArticle

helpersCheckIsPostiesArticle

hooksArticleAcknowledgementGateOverlayArticle

hooksTrackPageViewArticle

hooksContentInterestArticle

articleLinkingDataContent

articleSchemaContent

liveArticle

advertZone

sentiment

contentLock

topics

types

sections

moreOnThisArticles

urlAlias

commentCount

sponsorType

authorLocations

authors

paywallTypes

corrections

displaySlideShow

multimediaEmbed

printHeadline

seriesContainer

socialHeadline

headline

flag

firstTopic

glossary

flattenTypeIds

publishedDate

additionalInfoBoxes

images

image

relatedLinks

relatedNewsletters

__typename

createdDate

sponsor

factSheets

series

disableOffPlatformContent

published

updatedDate

summary

subHeadline

body

keywords

copyrighted

customTimezone

liveContents

Peter Michael

The hospital says he died of a form of atypical pneumonia - but it wants the wording of his death certificate altered

Hospital officials are attempting to alter the death certificate of a five-year-old Hong Kong boy killed by a form of atypical pneumonia last week in the Queen Mary Hospital to strike out Sars as the cause of death.

Wan Chai schoolboy James Lakandri died in intensive care last Thursday after being admitted with a fever on April 3. His death certificate states that he died of 'Atypical Pneumonia (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) and immunodeficiency'.

The hospital yesterday insisted he had not died of Sars, however, and phoned the family seeking their permission to change his death certificate.

James was held in isolation for suspected Sars, treated with a cocktail of drugs including Ribovarin and steroids and put on a ventilator.  His family was ordered to serve 10 days in quarantine.

Following his death, however, doctors insist a series of tests showed the Nepalese boy died from a mystery virus not linked to Sars.

Health officials contacted the family after the South China Morning Post obtained a copy of the death certificate. The family did not give permission for the change.

Despite 150 deaths in Hong Kong and hundreds more worldwide, no children have yet been killed by the virus.

James' father Maniraj Lakandri, 41, yesterday told of his grief and frustration over the loss of his only son.

He said James, a kindergarten student at Tinkerbell School in Causeway Bay, had a prior history of illness, including a weak immune system.

But he did not understand why James was admitted with pneumonia, treated as a suspected Sars case, and then diagnosed with some other 'mystery' virus.

'They did everything wrong and now they want to cover it up,' said Mr Lakandri, who has one older daughter, Jenny. 'But I have lost my son. This is an incredible way to treat human life.

'If they had given him normal treatment maybe he would still be alive. I will never get my son back.'

Mr Lakandri, a civilian worker for the Hong Kong police department, has called for an  inquiry into his son's death, saying he had not been shown sufficient proof about the true cause of death.

The doctor in charge of the case at the Queen Mary yesterday confirmed the five-year-old had died of atypical pneumonia - but not Sars.

Lau Yu-lung, head of the department of pediatrics and adolescent medicine at the University of Hong Kong, Queen Mary Hospital, said a series of extensive tests, including serum analysis and post-mortem examination lung samples, had shown no sign of the Sars  virus.

He rejected the possibility of some form of a mutated Sars virus.

'He did have a very rare, very severe acute respiratory disease,' he said. 'But it was not Sars, which is caused by the novel and new coronavirus.

'Of course it is very frustrating that we could not identify an agent. But James was not the first, and certainly will not be the last, where we will never know the true root cause of death.'

He said the case had caused a lot of anguish and distress among staff treating the boy.

'It has been very difficult for the parents but also for our staff, we do not have much experience with dealing with the new virus, and it was made especially difficult because this was our first suspected case in a child. I know this case has generated a lot of anxiety with the family, and we have tried our best to make exceptional allowances for them to visit the child, especially towards the end of his care.'

Because James suffered from an illness that made his immune system weak, hypogamma globulinema, it made the diagnosis of a coronovirus in his system very difficult, he said.

He said that he issued the order for staff to approach the family about changing the death certificate.

'At that time [of death] the classification was according to the guidelines. It was a suspected case and included all the elements of treatment, isolation, contact tracing and quarantine,'' he said.

'So it is a bit unfortunate that somehow Sars was put on the certificate, but this is the original definition.

'As clinicians we have to go along with how they classify, but of course that is moving as the outbreak evolves. Since then the definition has shifted.

'We are confident we do not need to mention Sars on the death certificate and I have instructed senior staff to get in contact with the family and remove it.'



Boy, 5, killed by Sars-like illness