Hospital Accused Of Negligence Over Paralysed Girl

The United Christian Hospital has been accused of evading responsibility over a mistake last November that left a teenage girl at risk of being permanently half-paralysed.

Her family say a senior doctor mistakenly pierced an artery in her neck, instead of a vein, while treating her for inflammation of the spinal cord. The girl then suffered a stroke that paralysed the left side of her body.

She’s been transferred to Queen Elizabeth Hospital, and doctors there warn may never regain the use of her left arm and leg.

Democratic Party legislator James To, who’s been helping the family, urged the United Christian hospital to offer compensation.

He said: "We feel they should admit liability and negligence on their part. However it seems that they just catagorize it as a kind of natural accident.

"However according to the very senior doctor, the consultant at QE hospital, they have never seen such a serious error, and it's an avoidable incident."

Last year a lack of vigilance by doctors, caused in part by a heavy workload, was blamed for another medical blunder at United Christian Hospital which left a patient's liver in such poor condition she needed a transplant and later died.