Nursing staff shortage, insufficient equipment testing blamed after tube detaches from Hong Kong patient’s ventilator in isolation ward
- Dr Raymond Lee says he believes incident caused by administrative error, adding nurses’ high workload might have prevented them from monitoring equipment
- Middle-aged tuberculosis patient was left in critical condition after his heart stopped when ventilator tube became loose in isolation ward
A staff shortage and insufficient equipment testing could have been contributing factors in a suspected medical blunder that left a Hong Kong man in a critical condition after a tube detached from a ventilator, an expert and a patient representative said on Friday, with the latter expressing disappointment over a three-day delay in reporting the incident.
Kwong Wah Hospital in Yau Ma Tei on Thursday revealed that the 51-year-old tuberculosis patient’s heart stopped when the ventilator tube became loose in an isolation ward on February 5.
Dr Raymond Lee Wai-chuen, director of critical care medicine at Hong Kong Sanatorium and Hospital, said he believed the incident was caused by an administrative error rather than a clinical one.
“It happened in the hospital’s new complex,” he told a radio show on Friday. “They put the old system in the new ward. The environment is different. Did they test whether the system can operate?
“It is possible that when they tested the system, they simply turned on the equipment. They may not place ventilators and other monitoring devices in the ward to see if they will affect the Wi-fi or the alarm system.”
The hospital’s new complex started offering services last April.