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After several hours of hearing and several interviews, the sole judge concluded that the defendant should be charged with fatal bodily injury. In the most extreme case, the punishment range is up to 15 years; the senate of a jury is responsible. The decision is not final.
The doctor was tried Wednesday for gross negligent homicide. The reason for this is the death of a 32-year-old boy as a result of a follicular puncture performed on June 3 at a fertility clinic in Baden (puncture of the follicles to extract the eggs, note).
We report on death:
Two women aged 31 and 35 who were treated the same day in the private center also developed complications. Both had received temporary intensive care, but were soon on the road to recovery. In this context, the anesthesia and intensive care specialist was charged with bodily injury due to gross negligence.
Specifically, the 64-year-old man is said to have made a mistake while administering the drug Propofol on June 3. As the prosecutor explained in his opening lecture, the day before the defendant had used a vial filled with the substance in a Viennese clinic. Instead of disposing of it, as usual, afterwards, the defendant transported the open container to his home and stored it there in the refrigerator.
“This bottle was brought to the baby clinic on June 3,” the prosecution representative said. “That was a coincidence, fate for me. That was stupid,” said the anesthetist.
Using propofol “was never a problem” for him for 30 years and was actually “like riding a bicycle,” the doctor emphasized. The defendant said that he had no knowledge that the containers of this agent that had already been opened could not be used again.
The judge did not accept this description from the doctor. “I cannot believe the claim that he did not know that he was not allowed to use an open bottle of propofol,” said the lawyer immediately before the incompetence sentence, which was unexpected by many observers. “I have to assume you knew I had to throw it away.”
The lawyer did not consider the anesthesia justified. “He knowingly used propofol when it was very clear he shouldn’t and he acted in the hope that nothing would happen.”
The judge stressed that “a large number” of possible additional physical injuries suffered by patients who may have been treated in this way must be dealt with before additional charges can be brought. Although the defense appealed and requested the annulment, the prosecutor did not make a statement.
We inform:
The death of a 32-year-old as a result of treatment at a private fertility clinic in Baden became the main subject of a trial in the Wiener Neustadt regional court on Wednesday.
A 64-year-old anesthetist is charged with gross negligence. The doctor had assumed responsibility for the June incident in the course of the investigation, but has now pleaded not guilty.
On June 3, the Austrian citizen is said to have made mistakes in administering the drug Propofol during the puncture of the follicles (puncture of the follicles for egg retrieval, note). As the prosecutor explained in his opening lecture, the 64-year-old had used a vial of the drug the day before. Instead of discarding it later, as usual, the defendant transported the opened container to his home and stored it there in the refrigerator.
“This bottle was brought to the baby clinic on June 3,” the prosecution representative said. “That was a coincidence, fate for me. That was stupid,” said the anesthetist. At the Baden facility, the doctor, who basically works in a Viennese hospital, only wanted to help in early June. “It was a bad idea for me,” he said dryly.
The 64-year-old man is said to have transferred ingredients from the gut-contaminated container to three women as part of the treatment. The 32-year-old patient died two days later in a Vienna hospital. According to the Public Ministry, he had suffered septic shock with a massive blood clotting disorder, caused by contamination with germs. Two other women had received temporary intensive care, but were soon recovering. In this context, the specialist in anesthesia and intensive care is accused of bodily injury due to gross negligence.
Using propofol “was never a problem” for him for 30 years and was actually “like riding a bicycle,” the doctor emphasized. However, he was not aware that the already opened containers of this agent are not allowed to be used again, said the defendant, described by colleagues as very curious, to the astonishment of the sole judge. He does not want to have consulted this topic in specialized publications and, according to his own statements, he did not even look at the leaflet before the treatments.
The doctor, who spoke of a “terrible thing”, said he was devastated by the complications that had arisen: “I am still finished and I have no memory.” He admitted that he had not used propofol correctly. “But that was not the cause of death.”
Michael Dohr, the anesthetist’s attorney, saw it in a similar way. The 32-year-old woman had ovarian hyperstimulation due to the retrieval of a total of 19 eggs, which ultimately led to a fatal clotting disorder in the body. The lawyer also questioned the contamination of the medicine bottle. “You wonder how an intestinal germ can get into the refrigerator,” said the attorney in court. Also, the germ was only detected after the container had been in the trash can for a long time.
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