Panels to investigate if Hong Kong hospital and doctors covered up liver patient blunder
Two specialists ignored automatic computer alert when giving the woman harmful dose of steroids
Two investigation panels will probe whether a Hong Kong public hospital and two doctors deliberately covered up a serious medical blunder that left a woman dying and desperate for a liver transplant.
It emerged on Tuesday that two specialists at United Christian Hospital made the error despite an automatic reminder in the computer system that warned them of the risk of kidney patient Tang Kwai-sze suffering acute liver failure if they gave her a high dose of steroids.
Both doctors ignored the alert and did not prescribe Tang, who suffered from hepatitis B, a drug to prevent the potentially fatal side-effects when they treated her in January and February, according to Hospital Authority chief executive Dr Leung Pak-yin on Wednesday.
A Queen Mary doctor also broke his silence to reveal that United, which had already discovered the oversight on April 5, had failed to inform them of the blunder. United kept Tang’s family in the dark until her teenage daughter, Michelle, demanded an explanation for her sudden liver condition on April 19.
The hospital also did not report the mishap to the Authority until April 20, violating the protocol of flagging serious incidents within 24 hours, Leung said.