The cost of a famous medical error: the court ordered a private clinic almost half a million euros

The ruling of the Lithuanian Court of Appeal, which came into force since the announcement, states that the Kardiolita company must pay 140 thousand LTL to the spouse of the deceased patient. In the case of pecuniary damage, it was estimated that the deceased would have paid such an amount from the day of death until reaching retirement age.

Previously, the court sentenced the two minor daughters of the deceased to 71,000 and 113,000, respectively. EUR.

In addition, the court has sentenced the wife and daughters of the deceased to 23,000 from Kardiolita. Eur to compensate moral damages.

At the time, in a criminal case in which a cardiolytic doctor had been convicted of an operation that tragically ended, the court had sentenced the deceased’s parents and sister to 8.4 thousand. EUR for the property and 41.6 thousand. one thousand Eur – for non-pecuniary damage. More than 23 thousand. Eur “Kardiolitai” has been ordered to pay “Sodra”.

Most of the money has already been paid to Cardiolita’s victims, as the case has been pending in court for years before it was finally decided what benefit should be awarded to the widow of a patient who died after a tragic operation.

The Lithuanian Court of Appeal, from a private clinic, awarded the spouse of the deceased a quarter of his income, which he would have received if he had survived until retirement. After a quarter, the court has sentenced the deceased’s daughters to adulthood.

According to the court, when determining the amount of compensation to be paid to a person entitled to compensation for damage caused by the deprivation of life of a spouse, it is necessary, first of all, to assess the person’s capacity to support herself.

“Therefore, it is necessary to determine the health status, age, earning potential and other income of a person if the person claiming compensation is employed: income received, other important circumstances that determine the amount of compensation of a person entitled to alimony due to the death of his spouse; it is no less important to determine the possibility that the deceased, if he were alive, provide a fixed amount of support, noted the panel of judges chaired by Judge Asta Radzevičienė. – The Court of Cassation, when ruling on the possibility of receiving a person if their health was not harmed (in the present case, in the absence of deprivation of life), indicated that the circumstances (subjective circumstances) and the changes in the public relations related to a certain victim (deceased) could be valued. (objective circumstances) “.

Although the defendant company Kardiolita testified in court that the coronavirus pandemic had significantly worsened the financial situation of the medical institution, the court had no doubt that the company could not compensate for the damage caused by its illegal actions.

The court ordered a 41-year-old woman who lost her husband in the medical institution to pay 400 euros a month in the event of the loss of her survivor. In determining this amount, the court followed specific criteria that justify the amount of pecuniary damage: the widow’s ability to support herself and the deceased’s ability, if alive, to provide a fixed amount of support.

“The plaintiff has every opportunity to look for work and support herself, she is of working age, she does not have any health problem that objectively prevents her from participating in work, her children do not need constant care,” according to the court, the plaintiff. therefore, he was reasonably awarded compensation of € 400 per month.

The court awarded the damages of the Cardiolitis Clinic after a tragic event that occurred in 2013. May 16 – The urologist Mindaugas Žiukas, who worked at the clinic during the laparoscopic varicocelectomy, did not perform the surgical intervention correctly during the surgery, because he damaged the blood vessel, the left external iliac vein, so the acute internal bleeding caused the death of the patient within a few hours.

The doctor was sentenced to two years in prison for deprivation of life due to negligence, postponed for the same period. Furthermore, M. Žiukas was sentenced to a criminal sanction: the court ordered the payment of a contribution of 941 euros to the fund for crime victims.

In this criminal case, the final judgment was not issued until April last year, when the Lithuanian Supreme Court examined the complaints of the convicted doctor and the prosecution.

“Physicians who perform their duties are subject to increased requirements of diligence, care, caution and qualification,” said Judge Giedrė Norvilienė when announcing the verdict. – According to the court, M. Žiukas did not assume that his mistake: damage to the left external iliac vein could cause the death of the patient, but according to his education, experience and competence as a urologist, he had and could have predicted that his behavior careless and neglected: large blood vessels violation can result in the death of the patient. “

M. Žiukas did not plead guilty in court and did not even apologize to the victims. “He called me two weeks after his death and asked when my husband would be buried”, the widow did not hide in court that she did not understand what the doctor was trying to do with that one call, since her husband had been buried a long time ago .

As previously announced Delphi, a small pre-planned operation at the famous Vilnius clinic “Kardiolita” resulted in the death of the father of two daughters – instead of apologizing to the relatives of the deceased unexpectedly for the mistake that caused irreversible consequences, the doctors tried to hide the circumstances of the accident and even mocked that people also die of appendicitis.

It was established that M. Žiukas was still in 2013. On May 16, 2006, during a surgical intervention at the Vilnius Clinic “Kardiolita”, a Vilnius resident damaged a blood vessel and perforated a vein, from which the man bled and died five hours later.

That Dr. M. Žiukas may be the culprit for the death of the patient became clear only after a thorough examination by forensic experts; Until then, neither the urologist who performed the operation nor the clinic managers admitted to having made mistakes.

The death of a young father of two children is a great tragedy for his entire family. The man, who came from Radviliškis but lived with his wife and children in Vilnius, had a well-paid job, took great care and perhaps even excessively of his health, so when the man felt pain in his lower abdomen, he went to see a doctor.

“They bathed him in the lower abdomen, so they offered him surgery; it was said that it was very simple, they would operate on him at lunch and let him go home in the morning,” the widow told the court without hiding her emotion. “I didn’t get any information from the man for a long time that day, there was panic, and when I finally managed to call Cardiolite at night, I called the doctor on the phone, who couldn’t even explain what happened.”

According to the woman, the doctor who answered the phone said that “the operation did not work, it happens.”

“I asked him how he had been so unlucky and how my husband was feeling now, and then he said he was dead,” the woman wondered that after the man’s sudden death, no one had told her about the disaster.

In shock, the woman managed to call Radviliškis and informed the wife’s parents about the terrible tragedy. The year-long woman soon found herself in the clinic, but she still did not know why her husband died during such a simple operation.

“I was told that three holes are made in the lower abdomen, one with an inserted camera and the other with instruments and a cut vein, and then it is fixed and removed,” said the widow. “Then the doctor considered that maybe my husband had a bruise on his body or some congenital disease, but as we now know, he kept all the information from us: two veins were cut, which caused my husband to bleed a lot.”

The woman pointed out that the doctors at the clinic also lied when her mother called the clinic after the operation to find out what the patient’s condition was.

“They told him he was resting, but in fact, as we now know, he had already opened his entire abdominal cavity and underwent surgery, still trying to save him,” the victim said.

The widow of the deceased did not hide that she was seriously injured by one of Cardiolita’s doctors, she said that after the death of her husband, “everything happens in life, people die of appendicitis.”

These words cannot be forgotten by the sister of the deceased.

“I got the impression that they were still making fun of us,” he said. “After these words from the doctor, I said yes, people die not only from appendicitis, but also from toothache.”

It was after the operation that the deceased’s sister called the police for “Cardiolitis” – when she went to see her deceased brother, she saw that his chest had been cut, that it was “terribly stitched up”.

And that didn’t even have to be during the operation.

“The doctor couldn’t explain anything to us, he just walked from one side to the other and sweated a lot,” he recalled.

According to the victim, M. Žiukas was unable to say anything to his parents, who came to the clinic from Radviliškis after all.

“I still remember that moment – I told the doctor that you killed my son, and he retaliated not to offend me.” The father, who had a very close relationship with his son, could not stop the tears in the courtroom.

According to him, the doctor did not want to take responsibility for being the victim of the death of the patient: “He was only wondering if maybe his son had a congenital disease or maybe a mole on his body.”

After the operation, the bleeding man’s father did not hide that he was trying to dissuade his son from the operation, although it was not complicated at all.

“But I was very afraid of prostate cancer; my father’s brother died because of it,” admitted the victim.

“This past journey, from the police summons to the trial, is a bit reassuring for our family, because only after the findings of the experts did we learn what happened during the operation at the clinic,” said the deceased’s sister. to court.

Kardiolita blamed the disaster, but appealed to the courts against the judges’ decisions awarding pecuniary and non-pecuniary damages.

“We regret the situation, the death of a patient is a great loss for family members and the circumstances of this event are a blow to our entire medical community, we understand that disasters in medicine are sometimes inevitable, we experience such losses together with family members from the patients”. Delphi in the reply sent it was indicated by the management of Kardiolitos. – We adhere to the highest standards in our activities – we work complying with strict requirements for health institutions. The quality and safety of the services provided to patients is one of our core business principles and our daily priority ”.