A doctor who has worked in a hospital in Osnabrück for more than 20 years operated on the appendix of a man with a blood alcohol level of 2.29 per mille. He has now been convicted.
In the appeal case concerning an appendectomy performed while drunk, the Osnabrück Regional Court sentenced a surgeon to a suspended prison sentence of nine months.
It is undisputed that the behavior of the now 56-year-old doctor constituted grievous bodily harm, said the judge in her reasoning. The doctor’s lawyer had appealed against a previous conviction for grievous bodily harm to a suspended prison sentence of ten months. However, the judges did not agree with his view that it was merely negligent bodily harm. The verdict is not yet final.
The doctor had shown unusual behavior during an emergency operation on a patient’s appendix in August 2022. The operating room nurses and the anesthetist had noticed, among other things, coordination problems during the initially minimally invasive procedure.
The surgeon also caused burns to the intestines due to a treatment error. When he wanted to cut open the abdomen, the team informed the head of the surgical department, who sent the doctor away from the operating table and continued the procedure himself. He also ordered a blood and urine sample: the doctor’s blood alcohol level was 2.29 per mille.
The doctor had worked at the hospital in the Osnabrück district for more than 20 years before the incident. He had never been known to have alcohol problems and was considered a competent and friendly colleague. According to a spokeswoman, the clinic had dismissed the doctor after the operation. He says he is now working again at a hospital in northern Münsterland.
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