The Supreme Court convicted a trained general surgeon and acquitted two interns who operated on a patient on the buttock instead of removing a lump in the lumbar region, promotes Jornal de Notícias (JN). The case occurred on May 20, 2015 in a hospital in the north of the country.
According to JN, the woman was to be operated on for a lipoma, a benign fatty nodule in the lumbar region. In the operating room, the patient even indicated the location of the nodule, but the doctors did not mark it. The doctor participated as a specialist and consultant, while the rest of the doctors remained trainees.
As a result, three material was removed from the patient’s buttocks, “which was sent for analysis, but which did not correspond to a lipoma,” the newspaper writes.
“In October 2021, three defendants were acquitted in a negligent violation of physical integrity case. In July 2022, the patient filed an appeal, and the court sentenced three doctors to fines of 1375, 1000 and 600 euros and payment of 15 thousand euros to the victim. for non-pecuniary damage,” he adds.
The defendants went to the Supreme Court, and the doctors stated that they had only a few weeks to practice their profession, and that they followed the instructions of the attending physician, which he guaranteed.
The doctor was ordered to pay the victim 15,000 euros and a fine of 1,375 euros.