Dhe death of a three-year-old boy in a practice in the district of Kassel has legal consequences: the public prosecutor’s office there has brought charges against the operating ENT doctor and the anesthetist on suspicion of negligent homicide by omission.
The child had polyps removed under outpatient general anesthesia in April 2021, a spokesman said. According to the parents’ lawyer, Jorg Estorf, the boy was found in the recovery room to have a bloody cough and blue lips.
The mother then called the anesthetist, who injected a substance that was not documented in the patient’s records.
The doctor only appeared after around 90 minutes and found that the three-year-old had stopped breathing. During the informational discussion, which Estorf said took place on the day of the operation, it was said that this could easily be done on an outpatient basis.
Child not adequately supervised?
The public prosecutor accuses the accused of failing to have adequately monitored the patient in terms of equipment and personnel. In particular, vital parameters such as oxygen saturation and heart rhythm were not recorded.
Only when the anesthetist removed the vein access from the patient’s armpit did he realize that something was wrong. Resuscitation measures initiated as a result would not have prevented death. The boy is said to have died from brain damage from lack of oxygen, according to prosecutors.
According to Estorf, he could have been saved with a probability bordering on certainty if the practice had been adequately equipped. Medical errors happen again and again, but this is “a particularly blatant case”. The authorities are now asked. “If an inspection had taken place here, it would have to be assumed that further operation would not have been permitted.”
The safety of general anesthesia performed on an outpatient basis is repeatedly questioned. Several preliminary investigations into deaths after dental procedures are currently under way in Germany. The public prosecutor’s office in Hamburg recently filed charges against a dentist and an anesthetist in relation to an 18-year-old who died almost seven years ago. “The public prosecutor assumes that the anesthesia was carried out improperly and that he died as a result,” said a spokeswoman.