Huge scandal involving the Neurosurgery Hospital in Iasi, Romania. The health facility management filed a criminal complaint for manslaughter against two doctors whom they accused of having performed lumbar punctures on several patients without the patients consent.
Four of the patients died later. So far it is unclear whether these punctures would have led to their deaths.
According to the "Nicolae Oblu" Neurosurgery Hospital, 89 tubes of cerebrospinal fluid taken from eight patients were found in August 2014 in a refrigerator in a hospital ward, Mediafax reports.
Management claims that doctors have extracted cerebrospinal fluid from eight patients without their consent, four of them died afterwards.
Criminal complaints for manslaughter and negligence were filed against physicians Stefan Mircea Iencean and Ion Poeată, chief of neurosurgery, section III, "Nicolae Oblu" Hospital.
Doctor accused penalized with 10% off his salary for three months
Initially, it was decided to send the tubes for analysis at the Forensic Institute in Bucharest and at a private laboratory, and after having received confirmation that it was human biological fluid, the hospital management decided to notify the Prosecution Office.
The Hospital management also notified the Ministry of Health and the College of Physicians in this case.
Last week, the hospital‘s Disciplinary Commission convened a meeting to analyze the case of the two doctors. Thus, they decided to dissolute the employment contract of Ştefan Mircea Ienceanu while Ion Poeată was penalized with 10% off his salary for a period of three months.
During the ethics commission hearings, doctor Stefan Mircea Iencean argued that taking the lumbar punctures was performed for scientific research and that their number was not so large, meaning 89 tubes.
Iasi Court prosecutors began investigation in this case for abuse of office.
Patients protection: Patients’ rights were violated
The rights of the patients in Iasi have been violated, because they have not been informed of the risks to which they are subjected by the experiments made, the chairman of the Association for Patient Protection, Vasile Barbu said.
He also warns that medical trials are not performed directly on humans but on animals.