After the death of a 7-year-old boy from an ear infection, his doctor is sued. Parents are also targeted by the investigation.
The death of Francesco, 7, continues to cause much ink to flow in Italy. The little boy died of an ear infection. He had been treated with homeopathy for 2 weeks, despite the persistence of a high fever. The parents and the doctor who prescribed the treatment are being sued.
The facts date back to last week. Unconscious, the child was rushed to hospital in Ancona on the Adriatic coast. A few hours later, he plunges into a coma, from which he will not come out due to the neurological complications induced by the infection.
Asked by the doctors, the parents explained that they had always treated their son’s ear infections with homeopathy granules. Medicines prescribed by Dr Massimiliano Mecozzi.
Negligence
But this time, this alternative medicine does not work. And as the symptoms worsen and everything shows that Francesco needs antibiotics, the doctor reassures the parents and advises them to continue the treatment. A negligence that cost Francesco his life.
The grandfather of the little boy therefore filed a complaint against the practitioner. The latter is being prosecuted for manslaughter. He was also summoned by the Order of Physicians of Perugia. Dr Mecozzi will certainly be suspended for the duration of the investigation.
An intriguing personality
Italian daily Quotidiano.net specifies that the practitioner and the Order did not maintain very good relations. His peers have repeatedly asked him to justify his training as a homeopath.
A few years earlier, he had applied to be struck off the Order to become a storekeeper in a supermarket, reported the Corriere della Sera. He is also known to have frequented a mystical association. Once reinstated, he had opened two practices. His patients had never complained about him.
The regional president of the Order of Physicians stressed that this tragic story should not discredit homeopathy. “Any doctor, whatever his specialty, knows his limits and possibilities. In this specific case, it is an individual error, ”insisted Dr Giuseppe Lavra.
.
