A 61-year-old man found his death after a nursing student performed an unsupervised medical procedure on him in Hong Kong. Now, the victim's family has spoken and said that this has been done multiple times already.
According to South China Morning Post, the man's wife surnamed Tong revealed how it was like to deal with her husband's unfortunate death. For her, it was akin to "being pierced by knives daily."
Tong recalls seeing a bunch of student nurses who all performed tracheal suction on his husband. This is basically a method used in clearing a patient's airway of mucus. She and her daughter decided to meet members of the media on Wednesday, which is exactly two days after Tuen Mun Hospital announced the details of the death.
The man was a former crane operator and deemed as the family's breadwinner. At the said hospital, he was trying to recover from a tongue cancer operation. He had been in medication since late July and had a tracheotomy tube inserted after a temporary opening was made in his airway.
On August 4, a nursing student working in the hospital's surgical ward decided to perform the suction procedure on the victim. This was after the latter complained about feeling a bit uncomfortable because he was retaining sputum.
Unfortunately, the student's attempt proved to be unsuccessful. As soon as a small amount of blood was found in Tong's vomit, she sought immediate help from a duty nurse. Despite other nurses and doctors trying to resuscitate him, his condition deteriorated; hence, he died on August 25.
"The condition of the patient kept deteriorating and the patient's tracheostomy tube was also found displaced," the hospital spokesperson said.
MSN reports that two on-duty doctors arrived and the patient developed cardiac arrest but resumed circulation after half an hour. He was then sent to the intensive care unit but his condition deteriorated further and he died.
The hospital announced the management's plan of starting a preliminary investigation on August 7 by reviewing the procedure performed by the student and the patient's symptoms.
"According to the Hospital Authority's prevailing protocol, supervision and guidance must be provided when a nursing student is performing tracheostomy suction for patients," the spokesperson said. The case has been referred to the Coroner and the Hospital Authority will launch an investigation.
Also in the same hospital, a 75-year-old died after a patient care assistant allegedly pushed a hard object up his rectum during a shower. An initial examination revealed the patient's rectum had been perforated.
