Doctor who wrongly filled balloon with gas before it burst inside Hong Kong woman’s anus ‘may have been distracted’
- Pamela Youde Nethersole Eastern Hospital apologises again for blunder, which left 86-year-old needing emergency surgery
A doctor who wrongly filled a balloon with gas before inserting it into an octogenarian patient’s anus, causing the balloon to burst and injure her rectum, may have done so because of the busy and distracting environment, according to an investigation report released on Friday.
Pamela Youde Nethersole Eastern Hospital, where the blunder happened, apologised again for the error two months ago, and accepted the probe’s findings.
The 86-year-old patient had a virtual colonoscopy at the Chai Wan hospital on December 7, 2018. The procedure uses external scanners and requires gas pumped into the colon to inflate it and give a better image.
The Hospital Authority investigation found that a small balloon placed in the woman’s anus to stop any gas leaking out was accidentally filled with the gas itself and then burst, causing the injured rectum. It was meant to have been filled with water.
The authority found that the outlets for the gas and for the water were both blue, so the radiologist might have used the wrong one to fill the balloon.