The Geneva Police Court on Friday sentenced a 62-year-old doctor to a fine of 180 days for causing bodily harm through negligence. This man was being prosecuted for negligent homicide. His patient died a few hours after a small outpatient procedure.
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According to the Court, the doctor violated the rules of the art and was negligent, but there was no adequate causal link between his fault and the patient’s death. Homicide by negligence is not accepted, especially since the cause of death could not be established, despite the efforts of the experts.
The facts date back to May 2020. The doctor worked in a medical center. He received a man then aged 76 who was suffering from discomfort in the anal region. The practitioner identified a venereal warts and performed an excisional biopsy. After the operation was completed, he learned that the patient was taking a blood thinner for heart problems.
The man was able to return home, but returned to the medical center following heavy bleeding. The doctor notably performed an additional stitch. The patient returned home, but the bleeding continued. He was eventually taken to the emergency room at the hospital where he underwent surgery. The man died during this intervention.
Lack of consent
The Public Prosecutor’s Office criticizes the doctor for not having carried out a correct and sufficiently precise history of his patient. The prosecutor also believes that the intervention should not have been carried out urgently, especially since an appointment had been made with a specialist a few days later.
He criticizes the doctor for not having given his patient sufficient time to think and for not having protocolized the intervention. “You acted recklessly by defying the rules of caution,” said prosecutor Vladimir Guillet. The Court in particular considered the absence of free and informed consent to be a fault.
He highlights serious negligence, but notes that the doctor’s motive was honorable. He wanted to relieve his patient. The monetary penalty is set at 180 days fine at 200 francs per day suspended and three years’ probation. The judgment will also be transmitted to the cantonal health authorities.
A brutal loss
During the hearing, the victim’s three children expressed their suffering and incomprehension following the abrupt loss of their father during the Covid period. He had consulted following a slight indisposition with the aim of being relieved and the result of the races: a sudden death, noted the family lawyer Mr. Eric Maugué.
The doctor’s lawyers, Me Maxime Barthassat and Me Flore Auberjonois, pleaded for acquittal. The anticoagulant that the patient was taking did not constitute a contraindication for the operation performed, noted the defense based on expert opinions. Their client felt the intervention was necessary because he feared the man would not return for treatment.
“Anesthetist deaths”
The doctor, who has thirty years of experience, said he was sorry for this tragic and rapid death, but he disputed the facts with which he was accused. “I took care of this patient properly,” he said. “Anesthetist deaths are less frequent than 20 or 30 years ago, but they exist,” he noted. The parties have ten days to appeal.
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