A nursing officer at Tuen Mun Hospital told the Coroner’s Court on Tuesday he and his colleagues were unable to closely monitor Wong Yun-chuen’s condition after he was transferred from a medical institution in mainland China on August 18, 2021.
The Hongkonger, 55, who lived in Huizhou of Guangdong Province, was admitted to the hospital’s isolation ward at 1.16pm for Covid-19 testing and a preliminary check, but the results were still pending when his elder sister found him cold and lifeless at 7.50pm the same day.
Wong was declared dead at 8.18pm after a failed resuscitation attempt.
Cheung Chun-kwong, the nursing officer responsible for the ward on the day concerned, described it as a “disaster day” and said Wong was sent to the hospital when its manpower was stretched thin by other patients requiring immediate attention.
He said the hospital logged a total of 12 emergency cases between 1.40pm and 7.40pm, with most of the nurses, including those tasked with monitoring other patients, also called away to provide help.
Cheung, who is now retired, said his team had only monitored Wong through an iPad camera out of concern that the patient was carrying the coronavirus.
The officer said that despite the overwhelming influx of cases, the hospital could not turn away the truck driver or call for help from other institutions as a matter of policy.
He also revealed that there was no protocol at the time to regularly check the vitals of a patient in an urgent case such as Wong’s, in contrast to other emergency cases.
Wong’s elder sister questioned why medical workers at Tuen Mun Hospital had insisted on monitoring patients through an electronic screen rather than attend to them in person.
Cheung agreed “it would be best if we could observe a patient up close”, but added that “we had to balance it against the risk of [Covid-19] infection, that was the dilemma.”
Wong’s sister said she was upset by the hospital’s failure to administer proper treatment before her brother fell into a coma.
“He was still lucid and conscious when he returned [from the mainland]. Why would his situation get so much worse in just a few hours? He came to Tuen Mun because he had faith in Hong Kong’s healthcare system,” she said.
The inquest, which began on Monday, is expected to last five days before Coroner Arthur Lam Hei-wei and a five-member jury.
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