Enlarge image
Accused in the District Court of Gütersloh
Photo: Friso Gentsch / dpa
Around three and a half years after the death of a 14-year-old as a result of a routine operation in a hospital in Gütersloh, the assistant doctor allegedly responsible is on trial.
On the first day of the trial before the district court in Gütersloh, the 47-year-old apologized to the dead man's parents.
The anesthetist also described the course of the fatal operation on November 20, 2018. According to this, up to six doctors had tried for several minutes to ventilate the young patient and later to resuscitate him.
The ventilator was incorrectly connected during the operation on the boy's knee.
As it turned out later, a nurse had swapped hoses.
The teenager was transferred to a clinic in neighboring Bielefeld, but his brain death was determined there.
Doctor admits missing control steps
The prosecution accuses the anesthetist of negligent homicide because he had not controlled the oxygen supply as prescribed.
In the case of negligent homicide, the law provides for a prison sentence of up to five years or a fine.
The boy's parents are joint plaintiffs.
The doctor, who studied medicine in his home country of Armenia and became a specialist, had to repeat his specialist training in Germany because his training was not recognized in his native country.
In his testimony and questioning, he admitted that he had not taken several steps to check the devices because he did not know that this was mandatory.
Proceedings against nurse dropped
The case against a nurse who testified as a witness had been dropped against the payment of a monetary condition.
The public prosecutor's office is still investigating other employees of the hospital.
For more than seven hours, the judge heard several witnesses, including doctors and surgical and anesthetic assistants.
Before the testimony of two experts, the court interrupted the hearing.
The trial will resume on June 9th.
fek/dpa