Once again, the doctor Aníbal Rúben Lotocki (53) is in the eye of the storm for the serious consequences caused by the surgery he performed on Silvina Luna 12 years ago. Now the model is hospitalized in intensive care for that malpractice. Despite his record, which includes a prison sentence, he continues to attend.
The best-known legal case against Lotocki is the one initiated by Luna after suffering methacrylate poisoning, which was placed on his buttocks in 2011. The substance entered his bloodstream and caused chronic hypercalcemia (high calcium level) and kidney failure.
The model had to be cured of a bacterial infection in order to receive a kidney transplant, but her health condition worsened and she is hospitalized in intensive care, sedated and on a ventilator. Now he is fighting for his life.
In February 2022, the Oral Criminal and Correctional Court No. 28 sentenced the doctor to four years in prison, considering him responsible for the serious injuries suffered by four of his patients after having undergone different surgical procedures.
The victims and plaintiffs, apart from Luna, were Gabriela Trenchi, Stefanía Xipolitakis and Pamela Sosa. Likewise, the doctor from Misiones was disqualified for five years from practicing medicine.
But then if Lotocki is sentenced to prison and disqualified from working, why is he still doing it? It is that the judge Carlos Rengel Mirat who sentenced him rejected the request that the prosecution had made to disqualify him provisionally until the sentence is final. And since it is not firm, the doctor continues to work.
"He did not attend the most minimal rules of professional practice: he attended in places without authorization, with products that he could not use and even tomake his patients responsible for the harmful consequences of his own criminal actions," said prosecutor Sandro Abraldes who had requested seven years and nine months in prison.
But Lotocki's record didn't end there. 20 days ago, the National Criminal and Correctional Court No. 60 prosecuted him without preventive detention as the author of the "simple homicide with eventual intent" of patient Rodolfo Christian Zárate (50) on April 16, 2021, after complications from a scheduled surgical intervention.
In addition, Judge Luis Schelgel ordered an embargo on the doctor's assets for 4,804,700 million pesos and ordered that "he must appear personally in court every 15 days, the first and third Fridays of each month or the following business day."
On April 15, 2021, the patient underwent liposculpture and dermolipectomy, for the sum of $ 6,500 at the "Cemeco" clinic, located in Caballito. The surgery consisted of the removal of tissues in different parts of the body, such as "neck, shoulders, pectorals, arms, armpits, anterior aspect of the abdomen, pelvis, lumbar region and sac and buttocks".
According to the file "due to the impact that these multiple approaches can cause, added to the general condition of the patient (he had had COVID and had grade II Diabetis Mellitus), it would have been advisable to perform the different procedures at different stages or surgical acts."
In parallel, it was established that during the operation, Lotocki "left the operating room for approximately forty minutes, since he had a virtual hearing with his lawyer, in which he would have left his assistants in charge of the intervention. Then I would have come back to do the plication and closing."
As if this were not enough, in May 2021, the Fourth Chamber of the National Court of Appeals in Criminal and Correctional Matters confirmed the prosecution of Lotocki for alteration of evidence in the criminal process, although the investigation continued to determine the responsibility of the doctor in the death of Zárate.
The fact that the doctor is prosecuted for "simple homicide with eventual intent", one of the crimes that provides for one of the most serious sanctions of the Penal Code, makes clear his willingness to operate despite representing that Zárate could die.
On the doctor's decision to perform the surgery, the judge explained that "despite being aware of the multiple risks to which he subjected his patient, Lotocki went beyond what is known as an objective violation of the duty of care in the surgical field, and not only foresaw the possibility of Zárate's death but accepted it and acted according to his own interests. "
Those interests were "to operate it at all costs before an eventual restriction (ban) due to the pandemic and to make sure they finish collecting their fees (received in the most absolute informality)."
Celebrity allegations against Lotocki continue. The former participant of the reality show Fran Mariano was hospitalized after the operation performed by the doctor with risk of amputating a foot.
"From his mouth I found out in full judgment what he had inside. I had agreed to inject plasma into my buttocks, but as I had been feeling very bad I found out through studies that they had put industrial polymer on me. It's plastic," the complainant said.
MG