‘How much longer?’ Chau Tin-yu’s father hits out at last-minute delay to doctor’s hearing

A high-profile disciplinary hearing into a doctor accused of leaving a girl in a vegetative state six years ago has been adjourned pending a coroner’s inquest, a decision the girl’s father learned of just a week before proceedings were due to begin.

The Medical Council informed Eddie Chau, father of Chau Tin-yu, on Tuesday night that the hearing, originally scheduled to start on October 27, would be postponed until after the inquest.

The decision leaves both proceedings in limbo. Just last month, the Coroner’s Court told Chau it would wait for the Medical Council inquiry to conclude first, to avoid a scheduling clash.

“The council did not say when the hearing will begin and we do not know when a coroner’s inquest will happen … now I have no idea how much longer I need to wait,” Chau, who has advanced-stage cancer, said

“The hearing has been delayed for a long time and they had long known a coroner’s inquest would happen. Why did they choose to make such a decision at the last minute?”

Chau said the council claimed it would write to the Coroner’s Court on Wednesday to notify it of the decision.

The complaint against the anaesthetist involved in the surgery was lodged with the medical watchdog in April 2021. In May this year, the council decided the hearing would take place between October 27 and 30.

The court told Chau in February that an inquest would be held, but did not provide a date.

Chau also launched a civil lawsuit against the Hospital Authority, which was settled in 2023.

Chau Tin-yu was four when she underwent surgery to remove a rhabdomyosarcoma tumour, a rare form of cancer, after chemotherapy and radiotherapy shrank it to an operable size.

But during surgery at Queen Mary Hospital in Pok Fu Lam in May 2020, a blood transfusion was delayed by 48 minutes and her heart stopped beating for 52 minutes. She emerged from the operating theatre in a vegetative state.

The girl spent four years in that condition before dying in March 2024, aged eight.

The South China Morning Post has reached out to the council and court for comment.

An amendment to the Medical Registration Ordinance is under way to diversify the council’s composition with more lay members and speed up complaint handling, including by requiring the council to set time frames.

The proposed changes to the watchdog’s operations followed a 15-year delay in its handling of a complaint against Dr Sit Sou-chi, who was accused of a blunder that left a boy permanently disabled in 2009.

The case was terminated last year on the grounds that the procedural delay prevented a fair hearing, but the council reversed its decision and resumed the inquiry in April after a public outcry. The doctor was subsequently found guilty of professional misconduct and suspended from the General Register for nine months.