Mother dies of Sars, baby survives
Wednesday, April 16, 2003
scmp.com
MARY ANN BENITEZ
A 34-year-old pregnant woman was among a record nine Hong Kong victims of Sars announced yesterday - two weeks after an operation saved the life of her unborn baby.
Two other women in their 30s and a 45-year-old man, none of whom had an history of chronic disease, were also among those who died yesterday, a day after a health official warned younger people would not be spared by the outbreak.
The 34-year-old woman was seven months pregnant when she was infected with the virus at her Amoy Gardens home. She was admitted to Princess Margaret Hospital on March 26.
Her family was among the first five families infected by a Sars-infected kidney patient who visited his brother in Block E of Amoy Gardens, Ngau Tau Kok, having been treated for flu at Prince of Wales Hospital and discharged.
Another pregnant woman, who works at the HSBC's Central headquarters, was also fighting for her life at Princess Margaret Hospital last night. She gave birth by Caesarian section, sources said.
The plight of the pregnant woman who died gripped listeners of the Commercial Radio talk show Teacup in a Storm after her husband pleaded on air for the Princess Margaret to save his wife, complaining that she was not receiving the right treatment.
A Hospital Authority spokesman said: "Following admission, the patient's condition deteriorated and she was transferred to intensive care. A Caesarian section was performed on April 1. Proper medication was prescribed Her condition had all along been critical . . . The newborn baby is being treated in hospital.''
The deaths announced yesterday included a 32-year-old woman - the youngest victim of the six-week outbreak. Four of the others who died were aged 67, 73, 45 and 82 and were chronically ill. The deaths took the toll of fatalities in Hong Kong to 56. After the mainland, Hong Kong has seen the highest number of cases and the most deaths.
Forty-two new cases of Sars were reported yesterday in Hong Kong, including 11 health-care workers. None came from the Amoy Gardens estate in Kowloon Bay. The new cases took to 1,232 the number of people in Hong Kong to have caught Sars, of whom 243 have been discharged.
Meanwhile, surgeon Kwok Ka-ki, a spokesman for doctors' lobby the Action Group on Medical Policy, said he was worried that people had been letting their guards down in recent days by not wearing masks or washing their hands frequently, after the government put out messages for residents to go shopping and dine out to help the economy.
"I would like to warn people we are fighting a battle with no end. The only thing to do is to stop this spreading. If the government's priority is economic revival, it is wrong. It will lead to more Sars cases and deaths and make the economy deteriorate more,'' he said. |
