Meeting the press a day before Father’s Day, her father, who only gave his name as Lai, accused medical staff of pressing Sum-yuet downwards on a pillow during the procedure which caused suffocation.

“Just like that, they have destroyed my beautiful family. It feels like my heart has been stabbed with a knife and bleeds every day,” he said on Saturday.

Lai and lawmaker Joephy Chan Wing-yan urged the Hospital Authority and Yan Chai Hospital to set up a committee consisting of experts and specialists from other hospitals to conduct an independent investigation, and look into what caused the girl’s heart to stop and the asphyxiation.

The father, who was accompanying his daughter during the procedure, said her head was facing the right side at first, but as she kept struggling, a medical staff used two hands to press her face down and forcefully secured her head.

“My daughter had been struggling for quite some time as her face was pushed downward. After the first stitch, the assistant said the child behaved herself better,” he said.

“I thought she did not make any sound because she had got used to the pain. But I did not realise something was wrong nor did the two medical staff.”

He said when the staff turned her over, her eyes had already rolled back, her tongue was stuck out and her limbs had turned purple.

But the Hospital Authority earlier said the girl underwent wound suturing “in a prone position with her head facing right”.

The incident occurred on May 25 as the girl was brought to Yan Chai Hospital in Tsuen Wan after sustaining a 2cm cut at the back of her head from a fall at home.

Speaking to the press four days later, the hospital said the girl was “struggling and crying” at 11.28pm after the first stitch, then a patient care assistant used her hands to “stabilise her head”. She finished receiving three stitches at 11.31pm.

But the assistant and a nurse later discovered the girl had lost consciousness and her heart had stopped, performing first aid on her immediately. Her heart started beating again at 11.49pm.

With no abnormalities in her lungs and brain X-rays, she was diagnosed with critical hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy – a dysfunction of the brain caused by a lack of oxygen and reduced blood flow.

Police launched an investigation into the case on June 1 after receiving a report from her father.

Lawmaker Chan questioned the hospital’s claim that the girl’s head was facing right the whole time.

“If she was in that position, it was impossible that the staff could not see her response,” she said.

She added that Princess Margaret Hospital had done several tests on the girl and found no underlying disease so far.

Chan also said before the hospital’s press conference, the father had requested twice to meet the management to understand what had happened, but in vain.

“Lai had no knowledge that the hospital would hold a press conference to talk about the incident. He had to read the news sent to him from his relatives to know what he saw was different from what the hospital claimed,” she said.

“The way the hospital communicated with Lai was not ideal.”

Chan said only after she stepped in to help the hospital eventually agreed to meet them on June 7, but did not offer any apologies or clarification on the position of the girl’s head during the incident.

She also urged the Hospital Authority to review its existing guidelines on wound suturing procedure at all public hospitals across Hong Kong.

In a reply to the Post, a spokesman for authority’s group of hospitals in West Kowloon said it was “saddened” by the incident and “understood the feelings of the family”.

“The cluster is very concerned about the incident. It will follow up on the case with full efforts and provide all possible assistance to the family,” he said.

“The Hospital Authority earlier appointed experts in emergency medicine and paediatrics to review the clinical procedures performed on paediatric patients and will provide suggestions for improvement upon completion to enhance protection for paediatric patients.”