HKU Drops Surgeon Who Abandoned Liver Transplant

Officials said on Wednesday that a top surgeon who left an operating theatre in the middle of a liver transplant at Queen Mary Hospital last year will not have his contract renewed.

Kelvin Ng left the patient on the operating table with her abdomen cut open last October to go to a private hospital to perform a planned operation there.

The abandoned liver patient's surgery only resumed hours later after Ng returned.

The University of Hong Kong's Faculty of Medicine, which hired Ng on a part-time basis at Queen Mary Hospital, said it had decided not to renew his contract when it ends in a few months' time.

The faculty’s dean, Gabriel Leung, said the decision was made after careful consideration.

The patient involved in the saga survived her operation and her family did not make a complaint about the surgery delay.