A jury at the coroner's court has ruled an 83-year-old retired taxi driver to have died in misadventure, after a nurse removed a catheter inserted into his body while he was in a wrong body position. 

Retired Kay Chee was admitted to Queen Mary Hospital for tomography on May 19, 2016. On May 27, 2016, a nurse removed a catheter inserted into Kay's body while he was sitting in an armchair, although Kay was supposed to be in a lying position. His condition deteriorated, and he died on May 30, 2016. 

The six-day death inquest for Kay began on Tuesday last week (Dec 7), and a total of 20 witnesses were summoned before coroner Stanley Ho Chun-yiu. In the Coroner's Court on Tuesday this week, the jury composed of four men and a woman ruled Kay's death as misadventure after a four-hour deliberation. 

Before the jurors proceeded to the deliberation, Ho offered them three options – natural cause, misadventure, and open verdict. 

When guiding the jurors, Ho referred to the autopsy report, which said Kay's direct cause of death was acute myocardial infarction and said the key to this case was whether the infarction was a potentially fatal condition. 

If the jury believed that the infarction had taken place long before and endangered Kay's life and that his death could not have been prevented regardless of any maltreatment, his death should be ruled as by natural cause. 

If they believed the infarction in itself was not fatal, but events like removing the catheter while Kay was in a wrong position caused his condition to deteriorate and further led to his death, they should rule Kay's death as misadventure. 

If the jurors found the above deduction unreasonable and could not confirm the cause of death after considering relative possibilities, they could rule Kay's death as open verdict. 

After the deliberation, all five jurors ruled Kay's death misadventure. 

Also read: Coroner asks nurse to take her job more seriously in hearing of taxi driver's death

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