NAfter the death of a patient during cosmetic surgery, the district court in Frankfurt sentenced a 61-year-old gynecologist to a two-year suspended prison sentence. In addition, he must pay 19,400 euros in compensation and compensation to surviving dependents. The court refrained from imposing a suspension. A fatal personal injury verdict is not final.
In November 2019, a 34-year-old woman underwent liposuction of the neck and lifting of the upper eyelids together with the defendant. A gynecologist performed the operation in the practice of a family doctor friend in Frankfurt-Schwanheim. The patient was in cardiac arrest; Massive irreversible brain damage was discovered at the hospital. He died two weeks later.
According to the jury, the defendant is accused of “making a number of mistakes”, particularly that he operated on the woman only in the presence of his former nurse, who has no medical training.
The patient is not sufficiently informed
On the first day of the trial, the defendant admitted to most of the charges. He checked again and again for what had happened. He read the indictment and expert reports several times. Today, he realizes that he should never have performed this operation alone. He also apologized to her family: her 37-year-old husband and their two children, now aged six and 13.
After the incident, the defendant lost the position of chief physician at the hospital in the state of Saxony-Anhalt. Since then, he has also received psychological treatment. The judges considered these circumstances mitigating the sentence. The public prosecutor sought a conviction for negligent homicide. However, since the doctor did not properly inform the woman and her consent was therefore not valid, the panel decided that the bodily injury was committed intentionally.