A woman is in serious condition in intensive care after receiving the wrong blood type in a transfusion at the Caritas Medical Centre in Sham Shui Po. A doctor and a patients' group said it was a serious mistake that even a new staff member should not commit.
The mistake was discovered when the 64-year-old woman was transferred to the neurosurgery unit at Kwong Wah Hospital after developing a brain haemorrhage.
She was admitted to the Caritas centre on August 9 suffering from scoliosis - a curved spine, with a narrowing of the spinal column, a condition known as spinal stenosis.
She underwent surgery on Monday but her condition remained unstable. She needed a blood transfusion and required a ventilator to breathe, a hospital spokesman said. After the transfer to Kwong Wah, staff there discovered that her blood type was B, not A, as written in Caritas' records.
A preliminary investigation showed that laboratory staff at Caritas swapped her blood test result with that of another patient. The other patient did not require a transfusion and had already been discharged.
The woman is now in Kwong Wah Hospital's intensive care unit in serious condition. The laboratory staff member concerned had been suspended from blood-grouping duties and was given counselling, the spokesman said. The hospital will launch an investigation into the blunder, with a panel comprising doctors and external representatives. It will produce a report in six to eight weeks.
'The hospital has explained the incident and extended an apology to the patient's family,' the spokesman said.
