Physiotherapy made my pain worse, patient claims

A public hospital physiotherapist is facing a complaint of not only failing to relieve a patient's pain but actually making it worse.

Lok Ka-yin, a physiotherapist at Yan Chai Hospital, is accused of failing to provide adequate evaluation, planning, implementation and re-evaluation of therapeutic programmes for Olivia Koon Wai-chee between August 2003 and March 2004.

Ms Koon, 41, a part-time business lecturer at the University of Hong Kong's school of professional and continuing education, claimed during a disciplinary hearing of the Physiotherapists' Board yesterday that what was initially 'discomfort' in her right hip joint developed into 'intense and sharp' pain when she took two courses of treatment with Mr Lok.

She said her original main problem, pain in her right knee, had been reduced by 60 per cent.

Ms Koon said that during the first course of treatment, which ran from August to December 2003, the physiotherapist had asked her to perform a series of stretching exercises every day. She said not only had these exercises not helped her but they had actually made her pain worse.

She said that at one appointment, on November 12, 2003, Mr Lok had massaged her side. She said it had been so painful that she had screamed and sobbed, and since then had experienced spasms from time to time.