Man Dies After Princess Margaret Hospital Blunder

A 60-year-old man has died after a medical blunder at Princess Margaret Hospital saw him receive a liver biopsy just two hours after being given blood thinner medication that would render the procedure dangerous.

The man suffered bleeding on his liver after the procedure on Wednesday and died on Saturday. He had first been admitted to the hospital's intensive care unit in November with respiratory failure due to complications from pneumonia.

On January 3, doctors discovered he had deep-vein blood clots and liver abscesses, and started giving him daily injections of enoxaparin, a blood-thinning medication. On Wednesday, as the man's liver function began to get worse, the gastroenterology team suggested to intensive care staff that it should carry out a liver biopsy.

Normally, the biopsy would take place at least 24 hours after an injection of enoxaparin. In this case, the intensive care team administered enoxaparin at about 3pm, before gastroenterology staff carried out the biopsy at 5pm.

After suffering bleeding of the liver that night, the man died at around 5am on Saturday morning.

The hospital has set up a committee to investigate the causes of the incident and has promised to report to the Hospital Authority within eight weeks. The coroner has been informed.