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District Court Düsseldorf (archive picture)
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The parents of a woman who died at the age of 38 have sued a Düsseldorf clinic for payment of 400,000 euros.
An agreement suggested by the Düsseldorf Regional Court on Thursday did not come about.
The clinic has already paid the parents 300,000 euros in compensation for pain and suffering, the judge said: "According to German standards, that's a lot."
But the plaintiffs from Erkrath are of the opinion that the clinic is responsible for the suicide of their daughter due to inactivity and serious treatment errors and must pay a further 400,000 euros.
According to the parents, the daughter killed herself because of her body, which had been disfigured by 22 subsequent operations.
After an outpatient operation, a wound on the woman's leg became infected.
Her attending doctor referred the woman to the clinic on a Friday.
There she was only treated with anti-inflammatory and analgesic agents over the following weekend, despite the alarmingly high inflammation levels.
The lawyer offered a reduced claim
It turned out that the patient had contracted a life-threatening infection.
"The leg was all but rotten over the weekend," said the parents' lawyer.
The woman was finally transferred to a clinic in Bochum, where her leg was saved and she was saved from amputation through numerous operations.
The expert commission of the North Rhine Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians examined the case and found several treatment errors.
The parents' lawyer offered to reduce the claim to 350,000 euros.
But the clinic refused.
The procedure must now be continued.
File number: 3 O 193/20
ptz / dpa