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Medics accused of manslaughter: Two more "similar" cases
Photo: Roland Weihrauch / dpa
A trial against a senior physician at the Essen University Hospital has begun on suspicion of manslaughter before the district court of the North Rhine-Westphalian city.
After the indictment was read out, the defense issued a statement in which the allegation was disputed, a court spokesman said.
The public prosecutor's office accuses the doctor of administering a fatal injection to a 47-year-old seriously ill Covid-19 patient from the Netherlands in November 2020, although there was still hope. In a statement read out by his defense attorney Harald Wostry at the start of the trial, it says: "The evidence will show that the cause of the patient's death was the permissible switching off of the devices." The charge is manslaughter.
The public prosecutor's office is accusing the 45-year-old of having given the Dutchman, who had been transferred from Venlo to Essen due to pneumonia and Covid 19 infection, a "combined, overdosed" injection.
Accordingly, he injected the man four different agents.
Regardless of the man's serious underlying illness, the injection is said to have "directly" led to the patient's death.
According to a statement by the defense, the defendant had previously pointed out the futility of the therapy to the patient's wife and brother and discussed palliative care for the dying.
The wife had agreed to end the organ replacement because of the "imminent death suggested to her".
The public prosecutor's office, on the other hand, assumes that the therapy would have been possible to continue.
B. are charged with two other cases of manslaughter, which, according to the court, are "similar".
In these two cases, however, the evidence so far has not been sufficient to open a case.
"The defendant wants to get fully involved in the further process," said the spokesman.
However, B. only wanted to comment on the allegation after explaining his profession and his areas of expertise.
Witnesses were not called on the first day of the hearing.
The suspect from Detmold had worked as a doctor at the Essen University Hospital since February last year.
According to the court, he initially worked in the field of cardiac anesthesia and in July 2020 switched to the part of the intensive care unit, where Covid-19 patients were also treated.
He was also involved in terminal care for seriously ill patients.
For the procedure, 15 negotiation dates are initially scheduled until the end of November.
The wife of the deceased patient appears as a joint plaintiff.
The defendant has been in custody since November 18.
kim / dpa / AFP