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Death of woman who died after giving birth ruled as misadventure
The death of a pregnant woman who gave birth to her daughter and died after the labor augmentation in 2016 was ruled as misadventure at the Coroner's Court on Friday.
Liang Jinxiao, 33, who was 38-week pregnant gave birth to her daughter at Queen Elizabeth Hospital on November 28, 2016.
She died after mass bleeding occurred in her body, which took place because of a labor emergency called amniotic fluid embolism, where the fluid entered the blood stream of the mother to trigger a serious reaction.
After a three-hour discussion, a 3-2 jury decision ruled the death of Liang as misadventure.
The jury also gave advice to the Hospital Authority, including to revise the guidelines on the use of medicine for labor augmentation, to compliment the augmentation medicine with an oximeter, and to make sure that medics can seek help from the specialist when there is an emergency.
Liang's husband surnamed Chung cried emotionally as he heard the jury's decision. He later said he felt relieved and believed the verdict can do justice for his late wife.
Chung also agreed with the jury's advice, especially the one on the use of augmentation medicine. When asked will he demand the hospital to make a compensation or to apologize, he only said his lawyer will be handing the issues.
He stressed the patient's family and the hospital need not to take opposite sides every time when there is a medical incident.
Patient rights advocate Tim Pang Hung-cheong from the Society for Community Organization hoped that the hospital won't face every medical incident in a defensive mode in the future.
The hospital should see if there is any room for improvement by carefully looking into each incident, so that similar cases will not happen next time, he added.
She died after mass bleeding occurred in her body, which took place because of a labor emergency called amniotic fluid embolism, where the fluid entered the blood stream of the mother to trigger a serious reaction.
After a three-hour discussion, a 3-2 jury decision ruled the death of Liang as misadventure.
The jury also gave advice to the Hospital Authority, including to revise the guidelines on the use of medicine for labor augmentation, to compliment the augmentation medicine with an oximeter, and to make sure that medics can seek help from the specialist when there is an emergency.
Liang's husband surnamed Chung cried emotionally as he heard the jury's decision. He later said he felt relieved and believed the verdict can do justice for his late wife.
Chung also agreed with the jury's advice, especially the one on the use of augmentation medicine. When asked will he demand the hospital to make a compensation or to apologize, he only said his lawyer will be handing the issues.
He stressed the patient's family and the hospital need not to take opposite sides every time when there is a medical incident.
Patient rights advocate Tim Pang Hung-cheong from the Society for Community Organization hoped that the hospital won't face every medical incident in a defensive mode in the future.
The hospital should see if there is any room for improvement by carefully looking into each incident, so that similar cases will not happen next time, he added.
