The Medical Council charged obstetrician Christine Choy Ming-yan with seven counts of professional misconduct yesterday. Choy was charged for ordering a series of questionable and dangerous medical measures on celebrity Peter Cheung Shung-tak’s wife Eugina Lau and their newborn son in 2005. The newborn was born unresponsive at St. Teresa’s Hospital and died the following day at a neo-natal care unit at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital.
The couple had visited Choy’s clinic for a check-up a month before the baby’s due date. Lau showed no signs of labour but Choy, without explanation, ruptured her amniotic membrane at this visit. The couple rushed home to pack for St. Theresa, but Lau’s water broke before they could get home to pack.
Choy arrived at the hospital 12 hours after she ruptured the membrane, late from attending her brother’s birthday party.
It was found that Choy had left Hong Kong for a trip several days after the delivery — alleged to be the reason for inducing Lau’s labour.
Aside from rupturing membranes, injecting drugs to induce labour a month before due date, and being late for the birth because of a party, Choy also used a vacuum extractor — which often causes head injuries to the delicate newborn skull — for the delivery.
The baby was growing well according to previous check-ups but the baby was born unresponsive and died the next day. The couple, wild with grief, demanded an autopsy, which Choy refused and thus the law suit.
Yet another tragic case that results from our commercialised approach that turns birth into a medical procedure for the convenience of doctors rather than a natural process to be respected. Please, if you are a would-be mother, do you research and when in doubt, raise questions.
Source: HKET
Photo: Wikimedia Commons
