A Ho Chi Minh City hospital officially responded on Thursday to the death of one of its patients, which has sparked an online campaign demanding justice for the man who died after a usually non-lethal procedure.

Duong Chau Toan died on February 13 at his home, 25 days after undergoing a knee surgery at Thong Nhat Hospital in Tan Binh District, leaving his family and friends insistent that the hospital be held responsible for his death.

Calls for “justice to be made” have flooded social networks using the hashtag #justicefortoan. 

The campaign has become so widespread that friends and family of the victim have been joined by local celebrities and Internet users in seeking justice.

The #justicefortoan protest demands an official answer from the hospital as to why “a healthy 28-year-old man had to die only after a knee surgery for his injuries in a motorbike accident,” according to a message widely circulated on Facebook.

On Thursday, Thong Nhat Hospital held a press meeting to deliver an official response to the case, at a time when posts using #justicefortoan are constantly appearing on Facebook.

Professor and Doctor Nguyen Duc Cong, director of the infirmary, said the incident is unprecedented and he has not seen anything like it in the eight years he has served as director of the hospital.

“As the patient died after having received treatment at our hospital, we take the responsibility for the risk factor and will learn a lesson from this,” Dr. Cong told reporters.

The response appears to suggest that the hospital is not to be held responsible for professional mistakes that may have led to the death of the young flight attendant.

“If there is anything that caused mistakes to be made, we will take responsibility for it,” the director said.

In the meantime the family of the deceased said they only want the hospital to release the causes of Toan’s death.

Duong Chau Toan is seen in a photo posted by a Facebook user who joined the campaign to demand justice for him. 

On January 18, Toan went to Thong Nhat for a check-up after he fell off his motorbike and his left knee hit the ground, Dr. Cong said at the meeting.

The MRI result found that he suffered from an anterior cruciate ligament tear, and Toan requested to have a ligament rebuilding surgery at the hospital.

The operation was performed later the same day and ended at 7:00 pm, after which the patient was sent to the post-surgery room.

At around 9:15 pm, he was injected with a 15mg dosage of Mobic painkiller.

At 4:45 am the following day, he started to develop convulsions, slow heart action and hypotension.

Toan was immediately admitted to intensive care, and soon lost his consciousness even after his blood pressure and heart action returned to normal rates.

The patient eventually fell into a coma and was diagnosed with cardiac arrest.

The family then asked to take him home, where he died on February 13.

Dr. Cong said the hospital is still trying to identify the causes behind his cardiac arrest, a task he admitted is not easy.

“We need to perform an autopsy but it is too late,” he said.

Doctors ruled out medication shock as a cause, which they said “rarely happens later than two hours after the [painkiller] injection.”

A medical panel at Thong Nhat Hospital has said Toan might have a heart disease which had not been detected before his knee surgery.

The Ministry of Health has asked the hospital to continue studying the cause of death, and Dr. Cong said a new panel will be formed to follow the request.

The surgery cost VND249 million (US$11,116), VND189 million ($8,438) of which is covered by health insurance.

The hospital paid the remaining sum as compensation for the failed surgery.

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