At the criminal court of Mons, 2 doctors are being prosecuted for manslaughter. In 2015, a 14-year-old boy died just hours after going to Epicura Hospital in Hornu. For experts, mistakes were made at the time. The parents of the victim expect a lot from this trial.
The public prosecutor requested Monday before the Hainaut court, Mons division, the guilt of an emergency doctor from the Epicura Hornu hospital, prosecuted for the involuntary homicide of Antonio, a 14-year-old teenager. A stay of sentencing is proposed by the prosecution. An acquittal on the benefit of the doubt was requested against a pediatrician and the hospital.
As a panel of experts had stated in court at a previous hearing, the prosecution believes that mistakes were made on November 28, 2015, when this 14-year-old teenager was sent home after a trip to the emergency room. Antonio felt unwell, he had chills and his temperature was high. Ophelia, mother d’Antonio se remembers for RTL INFO 19H: “On has them it that‘il had to donner and antibiotic because since that‘il has been operated et on we got it still itof the that‘il a 38 of temperature, il his should and antibiotic. On repeated it several times times. Ils ont insisted and have us dits that C’was and virus so the flu. “
“Serious and serious faults have been committed”
The emergency doctor gave him an aspirin and an anxiolytic, considering that it was the beginning of the flu. However, the young man suffered from Opsi syndrome, since his spleen had been removed at the age of five. He died at home the same evening of pneumococcal sepsis. “Serious and serious faults have been committed”, believes Me Rutigliano, parents’ counsel, civil parties to the trial. The lawyer repeated the conclusions of the report of the medical examiners, appointed as part of the investigation.
The medical experts noted several errors: the emergency doctor did not realize the risk of infection, he did not take into account the medical file mentioning the patient’s history, he did not take into account the background information from parents. The latter also demanded an antibiotic, like the one that another doctor had administered to the young man in 2010 during a previous admission to the emergency room. For the prosecution, it is established in the file that the parents of the child insisted on obtaining a broad-spectrum antibiotic, and that the emergency doctor deprived himself of a means by not consulting the patient’s medical file and scientific literature.
The emergency physician had simply contacted a pediatrician by telephone, in order to obtain his opinion. “I believe that the pediatrician was not properly informed by his colleague, who had not properly analyzed the situation. I seek his acquittal for the benefit of the doubt.” said the deputy public prosecutor.
The defense of the emergency physician pleaded his acquittal. They believe that the emergency physician was not properly informed by the pediatrician “renowned”.
Judgment will be delivered on February 20.