Doctors switched off a Battersea woman's life support machine without her family's permission to save NHS resources, her husband has claimed.

Shun-Yuen Pang, a former British serviceman, asked for his wife Lai-Mei to be kept alive for two more days at Kings College Hospital so that her three sons could have a chance to say a last goodbye.

They took the first plane out of Hong Kong when they heard their mother, 58, had been hit by a car on December 22 – but when they arrived she was already dead.

Mr Pang, 60, said: “The doctor told me, ‘it’s not you who decides – it’s the hospital. We are turning it off in 30 minutes’.

“My younger son was on the phone pleading for me not to let them do it. I knew I could physically stop him, but if I did they'd call the police.”

The doctor allegedly said other patients needed the equipment and that NHS resources were overstretched.

The hospital refused to comment specifically on Mrs Pang’s case.

However, it said life support was only removed in cases where a senior doctor was certain recovery was impossible.

Mr Pang is now making a formal complaint about the way he was treated.

According to him, doctors were also hovering over his wife’s bedside “like a pack of seagulls” trying to get the family to donate her organs before she was even dead.

At one point she opened one eye and moved a hand, giving Mr Pang hope that she might still be saved.

But at about 4.30am on December 23, doctors said her head injuries were so severe she would never recover and made the decision to switch off her ventilator.

Her three sons, Ka-Chun, 37, Ka-Yip, 36, and Ka-Hing, 35, arrived the next day – Christmas Eve.

Mr Pang said: “We were all crying, and my son was angry. They wanted to see her one last time but when they did she was cold and being pulled out from the mortuary.”

Mrs Pang, who lived in Deeley Road, was hit in Thessaly Road after she came out of the hairdressers.

The driver has not been arrested.

The full-time housewife came to Battersea as a UK citizen with her husband, a former policeman and British Army serviceman, in 1995.

Residents knew her as a friendly and helpful neighbour, who loved traditional Chinese cooking and playing with her 10-year-old granddaughter, Elaine.

A hospital spokesman said: “We would like to extend our sympathies to Mr Pang and his family at this difficult time. We are sorry to hear that he has concerns about the care his wife received at King’s.

“We are encouraging the family to contact us directly so that we can discuss his concerns in more detail.

“It would be inappropriate for us to discuss the specifics of Mrs Pang’s case.

However, we would like to make clear that, in cases where life support for a patient may be withdrawn, senior doctors are always involved in this aspect of their care.

“Life support is only removed when senior doctors are certain recovery is not possible, and family members are kept fully informed at each stage of the decision-making process.”