Prince of Wales Hospital establishes investigation committee over latest medical blunder; relevant medics on leave

Prince of Wales Hospital admitted their mistakes in clinical handling in the latest blunder that led to the death of a premature baby and again apologized to the involved family and the public, saying they will establish an investigation committee and submit a full report in eight weeks. 

Addressing the media on Friday afternoon, the hospital’s chief executive Chung Kin-lai, deputy chief executive Cheung Hon-ming and head of the pediatrics department, Eva Fung Lai-wah, all bowed to the camera to express their sorrow. 

The infant was born on Monday after less than 28 weeks of gestation and had to be put on a ventilator in intensive care and infusion.  Around 3 am on Tuesday, medics adjusted the drug infusion rate due to the infant’s persistent hypotension but later found the stopcock of the infusion tube not opened, preventing the drug from running through. 

Although medics immediately resumed the infusion, the infant’s condition deteriorated, and the baby died at around 4 pm the same day. 

Chung said the hospital would shoulder the responsibility and discuss follow-up actions with the family after they calmed themselves down first.  He also said that the family was very discontent with the hospital’s handling of this matter. 

The hospital will establish an investigation committee and look into the directions of equipment’s operations and medics’ handling procedures, Chung said. 

The chief said the committee – led by Fok Tai-fai, former Dean of the Faculty of Medicine at CUHK – will submit a report to the Hospital Authority head office in eight weeks. 

“This incident seems like a nurse simply made a mistake, but it is actually not the case.  There were two doctors caring for the baby already, and the stopcock was found unopened after the alarm rang.  You can’t simply say it is just a human error,” Chung said. 

A preliminary examination revealed that there is no problem with the equipment, but they would have to see if the equipment can report the stopcock’s status in real-time and if there are any improvements in the handling procedures. 

Chung noted that the two nurses had over 20 years of experience caring for babies in intensive care.  The two doctors who tried to rescue the baby’s life also had ten years of experience.  All four of them are now on leave, he added. 

It was understood that the deceased baby had another twin, who is now in the hospital’s intensive care unit.