A specialist doctor transported an elderly person who applied to the emergency room home. The woman died the next day.
The woman had a fever of 39 degrees in the afternoon. Illustration image. Mikko Huisko
A 79-year-old woman from Savoie went to the emergency room on a March evening in 2019 due to a high fever and severe pain.
The specialist on duty assessed that the woman was not in immediate need of hospital treatment and discharged her.
The woman died at home the next day.
The specialist was accused of negligent breach of duty and wrongful death in the district court of Pohjois Savo.
Restless duty
The specialist doctor told the court that the woman had applied to the emergency room due to flu symptoms and a painful shoulder. According to the doctor, the woman was stressed in the restless emergency room and hoped to get home herself.
According to the woman’s relatives, the woman was sent home from the emergency room, because there was a shortage of beds. They were not with the woman in the hospital, but heard about this from her herself.
Valvira gave the specialist a note. Based on the patient’s symptoms, the doctor should have been able to suspect blood poisoning and take this into ward monitoring.
The causal connection was not shown
The district court of Pohjois Savo also considered that the doctor made a wrong assessment. According to the law, a man who worked as a specialist for almost 20 years should not have listened to the patient’s own wish for repatriation.
The court found the doctor to have acted negligently and sentenced him to a fine for negligent breach of duty.
Instead, the court rejected the charge of manslaughter.
It was not shown that there was a causal connection between the doctor’s negligence and the woman’s death, as intended by the law, and that the woman would have died the next day specifically due to the doctor’s negligence.
25 daily fines make the man’s income a total of 1,825 euros.
The judgment is not binding.
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