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14-year-old died after routine surgery – suspended sentence for anesthetist

2022-06-09T19:53:30.669Z


A helper had connected hoses incorrectly – the doctor should have noticed that: A resident doctor in North Rhine-Westphalia was convicted of negligently killing a patient.


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Photo: DDP

A resident in North Rhine-Westphalia received a suspended prison sentence for the death of a 14-year-old during a routine operation.

The District Court of Gütersloh made this judgment on Thursday.

In addition to being sentenced to one year and four months for negligent homicide, the 47-year-old anesthetist is to pay compensation of 10,000 euros to the dead boy's parents.

The decision is not yet final.

With the verdict, the judge agreed with the prosecutor's demand.

The 47-year-old is said to have failed to check an oxygen supply device in November 2018.

On the first day of the trial, the doctor had admitted mistakes.

A court-appointed expert had accused the doctor of grossly incorrect behavior.

A doctor's assistant had incorrectly connected hoses to the anesthetic machine.

According to the expert, the doctor should have noticed this through prescribed tests.

Ventilation of the teenager with a hand bag could have saved his life, it said.

Instead, several doctors had alternately tried to ventilate the boy and then resuscitate him.

He later died in a hospital in Bielefeld.

In his pleading, the defense attorney – unlike the court – saw the allegation of negligent homicide as not fulfilled.

He therefore advocated a fine.

The parents' lawyer asked for a two-year prison sentence.

The expert spoke of unfortunate structures in the hospital in Gütersloh.

In addition to a central surgery area, there is an outpatient surgery center there.

The assistant deployed there therefore had no special qualifications for the surgical area.

In the expert's opinion, the responsible senior physician could not be reached quickly enough for an emergency.

The public prosecutor's office is still investigating several doctors at the hospital.

The investigation into the doctor's assistant, who had incorrectly connected the tubes, was dropped in exchange for a sum of money.

During the justification of the verdict and after a second day of hearings, which lasted more than eight hours, the convict fainted briefly.

Judicial officers and his lawyer took care of the 47-year-old.

The judge then ended the process a little later.

whale/dpa

Source: spiegel

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