A doctor was found not guilty of professional misconduct by the Medical Council yesterday, for not sending a patient's sample for examination.
Dr Jimmy Mak Ho-leung was charged with professional misconduct for not sending a patient's tissue sample for examination after surgery. The patient's right fallopian tube ruptured four days later and she is now infertile.
The woman said that if the sample had been tested it would have shown she had suffered an ectopic pregnancy and the rupture could have been prevented. Both of the woman's fallopian tubes had been blocked. She had undergone surgery in which the right tube was unblocked.
After her fallopian tube ruptured the woman was told she was infertile and could only have a child using artificial fertilisation.
The council said Mak had carefully examined and done his best in the interests of his patient.
The patient, known only as Ms X, discovered she was pregnant in mid-June 2008. She went to the Adventist Hospital in Tsuen Wan, where doctors told her that the embryo was not developing properly and recommended an abortion. Dissatisfied with the diagnosis, Ms X saw Mak at Baptist Hospital in Kowloon Tong. Mak told her after an ultrasound scan that the embryo was about five weeks old, and that she should come back in a week.
Ms X then saw a mainland doctor, who told her after an ultrasound scan that her pregnancy was ectopic - with the embryo outside the uterus - and recommended surgery.