A NETIZEN posted a message on Weibo on Monday saying that a 27-year-old man had died after undergoing surgery to remove his appendix at Peking University Shenzhen Hospital in Futian District. The post claimed that the doctors used improper operation methods, which led to the man’s death, sznews.com reported.

    The hospital responded to the accusation with an official announcement pledging to legally deal with the aftermath.

    Pictures were attached to the online post to show the scene where the dead patient’s family put up banners blaming the hospital and doctors for killing their family member. The netizen stated that the unprofessional emergency treatment conducted by the doctors was unbearable.

    According to the post, the patient lost 7,650 milliliters of blood during the emergency treatment after the doctors conducted a minimally invasive surgery on the patient and found he was bleeding. The family members of the deceased weren’t notified until four or five hours after his death.

    “In such an era of advanced technology, how unprofessional would the doctors have to be to make such a small surgery turn fatal?” the netizen posted, apparently enraged.

    On the same day when the post went viral on the Internet, the hospital responded that it had already initiated an investigation to look into the case.

    The hospital stated that the patient, surnamed Li, went to see doctors at the Peking University Shenzhen Hospital on Friday. The initial diagnosis made by the doctors at the Emergency Department was acute appendicitis and the patient was received at the Gastrointestinal Department for surgery on that day.

    After performing a thorough examination and acquiring consent from the patient himself, the medical staff at the hospital performed the surgery on Li at 9:50 p.m.

    The hospital’s announcement stated that doctors found the patient was bleeding when they put a mirror inside Li’s abdomen. The surgery then changed as they attempted to detect the location of the bleeding. The doctors later found a large hematoma on the right side of Li’s abdomen.

    The doctors had to use gauze to stop the bleeding and started a transfusion while reporting the situation to higher-level departments. Experts from other departments gathered for an emergent meeting to look into Li’s case.

    After the discussion, the doctors made a joint effort and stopped the bleeding at around 10:40 p.m. and then removed the inflamed appendix. The patient had unstable vital conditions after the surgery and was transferred to the ICU, stated the announcement. However, the emergency treatment did not stop Li from suffering multiple organ failure, and he was dead within two days.

    “We sincerely apologize to the family of the patient,” read the announcement. “We talked with the family at 3:30 p.m. Dec. 12 and hope to continue positive communication with the family members of the patient.”

    Legal approaches will be sought to deal with the aftermath of Li’s death and the doctors’ operations, said the hospital. (Zhang Qian)