HONG KONG: A man accused Queen Mary Hospital yesterday of contributing to his wife's death by delaying a liver transplant. The charge was leveled at a Coroner's Court hearing.

The husband Chiu Fuk-san also told the inquest that a renowned medical practitioner had insulted his wife Rosanna Shea Kwai-fong.

The woman died of liver failure in September 2007.

Chiu told the inquest that his wife, 47, was found to have a liver condition by a private practitioner in October 2006. The patient was transferred to Queen Mary Hospital for treatment in February 2007.

She was discharged from hospital on March 5, but was to return for follow-up examinations to the hospital's liver medicine and surgical departments. Chiu testified that his ailing wife had overheard renowned medical professor Lai Ching-lung telling a hospital doctor Ivan Hung that a liver transplant for the woman was not worth attempting.

Chiu continued that a week later liver surgery department doctor Chik Hsia-ying told him during a follow-up examination that the department had not received his wife's medical record from the department of medicine.

He said his wife's conditions kept deteriorating. While his private doctor said his wife had suffered from primary biliary cirrhosis, Chiu told the inquest that Lai and Hung never confirmed the diagnosis.

He said he was told by Hung that his wife scored high points on a pre-operative evaluation and was ranked high for a liver transplant operation in July.

However, he told the court that staff of the medicine department was not aware that his wife was also seeking treatment from the surgery department in September. Chiu's wife died on September 17.

"A doctor at the surgery department told me that my wife had already missed the golden period for a transplant operation," he said at the inquest.

Chiu also said Lai had also "insulted" his wife.

"Lai asked whether my wife had taken traditional Chinese medicine. My wife said no. And he said my wife was a liar," he said.

Alfred Fung Kwok-choi, counsel for the Hospital Authority, told the inquest that the doctors of the medicine department had written in the discharge summary that the patient had taken traditional Chinese medicine, which affected her health.

But Chiu said his wife took only healthy pills containing Chinese medicine for two months after September 2006, and some other Chinese medicine in 2005.

He said Lai had not told his wife of the impact caused by the Chinese medicine.

(HK Edition 02/20/2009 page1)