‘Daddy understands if you want to go to sleep’: Hong Kong father’s heartbreak after daughter, now 8, left in vegetative state following surgery 4 years ago

Her 46-year-old father, a former online business owner, said he had begun to accept that his daughter was living out her last days in a vegetative state.

Chau said the family had come to terms with the fact that Tin-yu’s life was “counting down” and that they were prepared for the worst.

The father to the Post about his little girl, who has spent half her life in hospital.

He said he and his wife had been living with depression, and that they were also caring for their 10-year-old son, who has autism.

Tin-yu was four when she was diagnosed with rhabdomyosarcoma, a rare type of cancer, and had chemotherapy and radiotherapy which shrank the tumour to a size suitable for removal.

But, during surgery 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 and never recovered.

Days may be numbered for 8-year-old Hong Kong girl in vegetative state: family

The family moved into a new flat last year and she returned home for a few days in November, but her condition deteriorated and she had to return to hospital.

Chau has spent the past four years trying to find out what went wrong, going online to describe his pain and frustration when answers failed to come.

“As long as I am alive in this world and I do not do my best to seek justice for my daughter, I will not be able to face her in heaven,” he said.

He launched a civil lawsuit against the Hospital Authority in 2020, alleging a medical blunder during the operation.

He said he met the hospital’s management several times, but never got an apology or a clear explanation of what had happened.

“I am still clueless about why it happened. I have only been able to understand some of it through the bits and pieces of their replies,” he said.

Chau went on social media and spoke to the media to describe his dealings with the authorities and provided regular updates on his daughter’s condition, which attracted public support.

He said he kept going over recordings of his meetings with hospital representatives and pored over his daughter’s medical records.

Chau found that, eight days after the surgery, a doctor deleted a note in Tin-yu’s medical record that she had been injected with a 500ml mixture of glucose and saline.

He said the authority explained that the doctor had to deal with Tin-yu during the surgery and was unable to make detailed records at the time, and had made the amendment after confirming what took place with colleagues.

Chau said he had consulted a medical professor, and added he had been told the saline and glucose injection was an adult dose and that it was possible that it had caused his daughter’s heart to stop.

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The dad accused the doctor of altering the record to conceal the action.

Chau wrote to the Health Bureau last April and asked it to investigate, but was told it did not intervene in the management and daily operations of the Hospital Authority.

He said he went to police twice, but was told that he needed a referral from the Medical Council.

It was only after lawyer Albert Luk Wai-hung wrote to the police chief asking him to look into the case that the force began a criminal investigation last November.

Luk began helping Chau after the lawyer was interviewed about the case on a television programme.

Chau said: “Luk said if injustice existed in the medical system, where a doctor had the right to alter the records after some incident without any cost, it is unreasonable.

“If there are suspicions, they should be investigated. If it turns out that we misunderstood what happened, it can prove the doctor’s innocence and allow me to learn the truth.

“If it turns out that someone has done something wrong, they should be held accountable.”

The Hospital Authority later explained that the girl’s surgery was complex, and her condition kept changing.

It said the doctor had to deal with the immediate, urgent situation, but amended the original records later, after consulting the others present.

It added the actions were in line with established procedures for amending medical records.

Chau had to face a fresh crisis that arrived like a bolt from the blue as all that unfolded.

He was diagnosed with a cancerous tumour on an arm last July and another type of cancer in his left lung a month later.

He had surgery which removed most of the cancer, except for a tumour on his lung that was too close to a blood vessel and had to be treated with radiotherapy and chemotherapy.

He is still undergoing treatment.

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Chau said that after he considered his daughter’s condition, the family’s financial circumstances and his own health, he reached an agreement with the Hospital Authority last October, but was not allowed to reveal the details.

He said he had learnt that life was full of uncertainties and he had to live in the present.

“We can never control what happens in our life,” he said. “The only thing we can do is to cherish the moment and let go of unnecessary obsessions.

“The most important thing is my mental health, and that me and my family are happy.”

Chau said the family had already been through the most depressing part of Tin-yu’s struggle, and were now bracing themselves for the final episode.

“We have mentally prepared ourselves, but when the moment comes, we may be a bit sorrowful,” he said.

He added he hoped his daughter would be free from pain and sickness in an afterlife.

“I tell her, if you want to take a rest and go to sleep, daddy understands and respects you,” he said.