NUH And Head Neurosurgeon Sued By Daughter Of Woman In Vegetative State

The National University Hospital (NUH) and its head neurosurgeon, Dr Yeo Tseng Tsai, are being sued by the daughter of a woman who has been left in a permanent vegetative state since June 2014 after she underwent a surgery to remove a brain cystic tumour.

The 64 year old woman was suffering from headaches, nausea, fatigue and dizziness, and was diagnosed with a large tumour on the back of her head in May 2014. In the same month that year, NUH neurosurgeon Dr Ho Kee Hong recommended surgery to remove the tumour. On June, the woman went in for her scheduled surgery, but at the last minute, Dr Yeo was the one conducting the operation, and not Dr Ho as scheduled. The woman subsequently underwent two surgeries because of bleeding in the brain, and has been left in a permanent vegetative state since then.

The daughter is suing NUH and Dr Yeo for alleged medical negligence of her mother. This include the mismanagement of her case before and after the surgery, as well as the failure to identify and interpret her critical symptoms as the reasons for her current state. It was questionable that Dr Yeo only met his patient on the day of the surgery itself, when the surgery had been planned many weeks in advance.

NUH is countering the claims, by indicating that the woman was supposed to have met Dr Yeo at the end of May, but she did not attend. NUH also alleged that the family had been informed much earlier that the surgery would not be done by Dr Ho, who had first seen her.