Was it negligent for a doctor to send his patient home after a liver biopsy? No, the Muri district court concluded and acquitted the doctor “Aargauer Zeitung” reported.
Error noticed immediately
In 2019, the doctor examined the liver of a then 69-year-old patient at Muri Hospital. He accidentally injured the patient’s gallbladder.
The doctor immediately noticed his mistake and moved the biopsy needle to a different location. After three hours of observation, the patient was discharged home, although he was still in severe pain. In the event of a deterioration in health, the doctor gave the patient his personal cell phone number.
The prosecutor’s allegations
The next morning, the patient’s health deteriorated and he was taken to the emergency room. The man died in the hospital that night.
The public prosecutor accused the doctor of several mistakes: The patient should not have been discharged at all. Later he would have had to have the man taken back to the hospital in an ambulance. And in the hospital he would have had to call in an abdominal surgeon or order an emergency operation.
Mostly without consequences
The doctor explained in court that it sometimes happens that the bile is punctured during a liver puncture.
Normally only a little bile flows out and the hole closes. This is painful, but not life-threatening. But in this case, the doctor had punctured the bile, causing the bile to leak, leading to blood poisoning and subsequent multi-organ failure.
Blood poisoning progressed quickly
The doctor said it usually takes several days for blood poisoning to spread and become life-threatening.
The patient’s pain was not unusual. The doctors in the emergency room also didn’t recognize the cause of the pain. They ordered a gastroscopy because they feared bleeding in the stomach.
“Absolute exception”
Two reports showed that the course was an absolute exception and not predictable. The prosecutor argued that the doctor should have expected this anyway. She demanded a conditional prison sentence of two years and a fine of 10,000 francs.
However, the court unanimously acquitted the doctor. The reason: According to the report, it was justifiable to send the patient home. The accused was no longer responsible for further treatment. It also could not be proven beyond doubt that the patient’s death could have been avoided by consulting an abdominal surgeon.
