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Brian Wong

Two Hong Kong public hospital doctors have failed to recover legal costs of an abandoned manslaughter case in which they were held liable for a liver patient’s death in 2017.
Eastern Court on Thursday found Lam Chi-kwan and Chan Siu-kim had brought suspicion upon themselves by failing to prescribe an antiviral drug to hepatitis B carrier Tang Kwai-sze while she was undergoing steroid treatment.
Deputy Magistrate Leona Chan Pui-man said the pair had breached their duty of care for the deceased by overlooking that a failure to prescribe antivirals to hepatitis B patients could result in liver failure.
She also highlighted the doctors’ remarks made in previous disciplinary proceedings, where they admitted “making a mistake” and being “negligent”.
“Under the circumstances, it appears to the court that both defendants admit there is no justification in not prescribing the antiviral drugs on the deceased,” Chan said.
The magistrate stressed there was no evidence to suggest the doctors had deliberately deviated from their professional ethics or integrity.
But she added that it was unnecessary to decide whether the pair’s acts were so reprehensible they should be barred from recovering their legal expenses, in light of the suspicion they had drawn through their conduct.
Tang succumbed to liver failure at United Christian Hospital in Kwun Tong on August 26, 2017. She was 44.
The mother-of-two underwent two separate organ donations following a high-profile appeal to the public.
A Coroner’s Court jury ruled earlier this year her death was the result of a “misadventure”.
Lam and Chan were spared an immediate suspension of their licenses after the Medical Council imposed suspended sentences on them for professional misconduct in 2021.
The pair was arraigned early last year for alleged manslaughter, but prosecutors eventually decided to drop the case after “careful consideration” of the Prosecution Code.
The prosecution revealed further details about its decision following the defence’s application for costs.

Gary Leung Yuk-hang, a senior public prosecutor, said “originally available evidence became unavailable” because some key witnesses, described in court as officers of the Hong Kong Academy of Medicine, were “unwilling to testify”.
Leung explained the medical experts they had recruited for the case were also unable to conclude whether the two doctors must have been sufficiently trained to be able to avoid the blunder in the present case.
The justice department had also considered the pair’s “mitigating circumstances” as explained in their disciplinary inquiry, Leung said without elaborating further.
The deputy magistrate at one point of the proceedings questioned whether the pair’s prosecution had been premature.
She suggested the doctors could have been spared the expenses incurred in four court sessions before their case was dropped had they been released on police bail instead.
But Leung stressed the decision to bring the two doctors to court was “the best move we could have done”, although his team was proved wrong in hindsight.


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Hong Kong courts

2 Hong Kong doctors fail to recoup legal costs of abandoned manslaughter case

A judge at Eastern Court ruled that both doctors brought suspicion upon themselves by failing to prescribe an antiviral drug to hepatitis B carrier Tang Kwai-sze. Photo: Nora Tam

Tang Kwai-sze (left) with her family. Tang succumbed to liver failure at United Christian Hospital in Kwun Tong in 2017. Photo: Handout

Hong Kong ‘death by misadventure’ verdict after kidney disease patient died of liver failure when doctors failed to give her needed drug

Michelle Wu, the daughter of Tang Kwai-sze, a kidney patient who died after doctors failed to prescribe a needed drug, arrives at the Coroner’s Court. Photo: Yik Yeung-man

A Coroner’s Court jury has ruled the death of a woman seven years ago from liver failure was “death by misadventure”. Photo: Jelly Tse

Hong Kong doctor tells Coroner’s Court he followed prescription of earlier doctor in hepatitis B case where woman later died of liver failure

Chan Siu-kim (left) and Lam Chi-kwan (middle), doctors at United Christian Hospital, who are involved in an inquest into the death of a woman they both treated. Photo: Jelly Tse

Exterior view of the West Kowloon Law Courts Building in Cheung Sha Wan. Photo: Felix Wong

Hong Kong doctor in liver patient death case says he failed to prescribe key drug as he had been ‘distracted’

Lam Chi-kwan (centre) has admitted he failed to prescribe an antiviral drug to Tang Kwai-sze, a hepatitis B carrier, on January 20, 2017, although he did give her an immunosuppressive steroids drug. Photo: Jelly Tse

Last August, the Department of Justice dropped a manslaughter case against Lam Chi-kwan (middle) and another doctor at the hospital, Chan Siu-kim (left), over the death of Tang Kwai-sze. Photo: Jelly Tse

News

Hong Kong

Law and Crime

Court rules Lam Chi-kwan and Chan Siu-kim put themselves under suspicion by neglecting to prescribe antiviral drug to patient who later died


Court rules Lam Chi-kwan and Chan Siu-kim put themselves under suspicion by neglecting to prescribe antiviral drug to patient who later died.


Hong Kong healthcare and hospitals

United Christian Hospital