Ten years after she died feeling 'at the bottom of the pile' because hospital staff allegedly discriminated against her and did not provide proper treatment, Malaysian-Indian solicitor Harinder Veriah has achieved 'a semblance of justice', her widower says.
British writer Martin Jacques was speaking yesterday after he reached an out-of-court settlement with the Hospital Authority in a lawsuit he filed in 2002 over his late wife's treatment at Ruttonjee Hospital in January 2000.
The authority maintains there was no negligence or discrimination involved in her treatment.
Veriah, who worked at the law firm Lovells, had an epileptic seizure on January 1, 2000, was admitted to the hospital and died the next day.
Her case sparked outrage and public discussion about racism - which one official denied was a problem - and gave momentum to Hong Kong's anti-racism bill, which was eventually passed in July 2008.
Jacques, who left with their son, Ravi, for London in 2001 and returned yesterday for the Court of First Instance to approve the settlement, said the authority had agreed to pay 'a substantial sum'. The morning after she was admitted, Veriah had convulsions and was injected with Valium. Later, her blood oxygen levels fell. She died soon after going into cardiac arrest.
Jacques claimed the hospital committed 'a catalogue of negligence', saying it failed to monitor her respiratory depression after injecting her and mishandled her resuscitation. He said the day Veriah was admitted, he had asked a duty doctor twice what had happened to his wife, but the doctor had said she was not his patient.