Court in Stavropol Territory finds district paediatrician guilty of death of three-year-old girl

The Trunovsky District Court of the Stavropol Territory has sentenced the female paediatrician, who made a wrong diagnosis to a girl of three, who died because of that, to one year of settlement colony, Gennady Sobolev, public prosecutor of the Trunovsky District, said today.

According to his story, on May 5, 2010, the district paediatrician of the Trunovsky central district clinic, left for a home visit to a three-year-old girl, who had complained of stomach pains. She diagnosed the child with "dysfunction of the gastrointestinal tract and acute gastritis" and appointed some treatment. However, she failed to send the patient to a surgeon for consultation, which she was obliged to do in accordance with the order of the Ministry of Public Health, the local prosecutor's office has stated.

On the following day the girl's parents again sought medical help, because the child was no better. After examination, the surgeon diagnosed "acute intestinal obstruction" and sent the girl to the territorial children's hospital in Stavropol, where she was urgently operated on. However, they failed to drive the girl out of coma; and she died.

The court found the doctor guilty of causing death by negligence and appointed the punishment of deprivation of liberty for the term of one year in a settlement-colony, with deprivation of the right to engage in medical activities for 2.5 years, the TV Company "ATV-Stavropol" reports.

The position of the defendant is not reported; however, it is known that the verdict has not yet entered into force because of the filed cassation appeal, the RIA "Novosti" reports.

Earlier, the "Caucasian Knot" wrote about facts of negligence exhibited by individual health care workers in other regions of Southern Russia. Thus, today it became known that a gynaecologist from the Republic's Centre for Child and Mother Health of Chechnya will stand trial on charges of causing death of a parturient woman by negligence.