Health News
Hong Kong police to search landfill for body of lost baby
Jan 9, 2009, 0:16 GMT
Hong Kong - Hong Kong police will begin sifting through tonnes of clinical waste next week at a landfill site to try to find the body of a baby boy lost three weeks ago by mortuary workers at a Hong Kong public hospital.
A spokesman said Friday that officers from the Police Tactical Unit wearing protective gear on Monday would begin searching the rubbish, some of it potentially hazardous waste containing human tissue and laboratory waste.
However, hopes are slim of finding the body of the premature baby, who died soon after birth on December 15.
The baby's body disappeared after mortuary workers at the Pamela Youde Nethersole Eastern Hospital put him in a compartment with a large man. The man's body was released on December 19.
Staff discovered the baby's body missing during a routine count a week ago.
The mortuary workers have been sharply criticized by a top health official for waiting three days to report the loss of the body to the police and hospital authorities.
The blunder is the latest in a series by Hong Kong hospitals and comes the same week that another Hong Kong public hospital admitted serious errors in failing to send medics to treat a dying man who collapsed on the hospital's doorstep. The hospital's receptionist told the man's father to dial for an ambulance, refusing even to ring the emergency services number for him. The 56-year-old man later died.
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