Parents sue Hospital Authority over death of 5-year-old girl following stitching procedure

The parents of a five-year-old girl who died last year after receiving stitches for a head injury at a local public hospital have launched a civil suit against Hong Kong’s Hospital Authority (HA). Yan Chai Hospital. File Photo: Wikimedia Commons. According to the writ of summons filed at the District Court last Thursday, then-four-year-old Lai Sum-yuet received medical treatment at Yan Chai Hospital in Tsuen Wan on May 25 and 26, 2024. The lawsuit alleges that, during this period, either the HA, Yan Chai Hospital, or their staff were negligent and breached their duty of care, resulting in injury to Lai. Routine procedure Lai was admitted to the hospital’s emergency medicine ward after falling at home and sustaining a two-centimetre wound to the back of her head. A doctor ordered the routine stitching procedure, which was carried out by a nurse and a patient care assistant. When the three-minute procedure was completed, the nurse found Lai had lost consciousness and had no pulse. Medics restored her heartbeat after 18 minutes of cardiac arrest. She was then admitted to the paediatric intensive care unit at Princess Margaret Hospital in Kwai Chung, where she was diagnosed with a life-threatening brain injury caused by a lack of oxygen. She died there in February 2025 at the age of five. District Court in Wan Chai. File photo: HKFP. The girl’s parents, Lai Kwai-fei and Zou Shuzhen, have demanded that Yan Chai Hospital and the HA be held liable and filed the lawsuit on their daughter’s behalf to seek claims. The writ did not specify the amount in damages the plaintiffs were seeking. Suspected medical malpractice Following the incident, a Yan Chai Hospital spokesperson said at a press conference that Lai may have had rare underlying medical conditions. In June 2024, however, Lai’s father told reporters he witnessed medics pressing his daughter’s head against the pillow during the stitching, potentially suffocating her. The HA said in July the following year that genetic testing had ruled out underlying medical conditions as the cause of the child’s death. The HA issued an apology but did not directly acknowledge whether the tragedy was the result of human error. In September 2024, 26-year-old nurse Cheung Tin-wing and 62-year-old patient care assistant Wan Mei-kwan were arrested. The pair were charged with child abuse and later manslaughter. Their case was transferred to the High Court the next month, with both granted bail. Safeguard press freedom; keep HKFP free for all readers by supporting our team Support HKFP | Policies & Ethics | Error/typo? | Contact | Newsletter | Transparency & Annual Report | Apps Make a one-off donation. Irene Chan is a reporter at Hong Kong Free Press and has an interest in covering political and social change. She previously worked at Initium Media as chief editor for Hong Kong news and was a community organiser at the Society for Community Organisation serving the underprivileged. She has a bachelor’s degree in Journalism from Fudan University and a master’s degree in social work from the Chinese University of Hong Kong. Irene is the recipient of two Society of Publishers in Asia (SOPA) awards and three honourable mentions for her investigative, feature and video reporting. She also received a Human Rights Press Award for multimedia reporting and an honourable mention for feature writing. More by Irene Chan