According to two reports, Ortez’s anesthesiologist indicted after the death of a woman last October suffered from alcoholism. It nevertheless remains responsible for its actions before the law.
The respite will have been short-lived. The Belgian anesthesiologist, implicated after the death of a 28-year-old patient at the maternity hospital in Orthez on the night of October 26 to 27, 2014, is again under fire from critics.
Criminally responsible
Conditional release in December 2014, under judicial supervision, Helga Wauters had admitted to having drunk alcohol before the caesarean, fatal to the young mother. The anesthesiologist was the subject of two damning expert reports, consulted this Tuesday by RTL. In the toxicological report, drawn up six months ago, Dr Wauters is described as suffering from chronic alcoholism for at least six months at the time of the facts. Experts even speak of an “excessive and chronic alcohol user”.
The psychiatric expert’s report concludes that the ex-anesthesiologist is however “accessible to a penal sanction because at the time of the facts she was not suffering from a mental disorder having abolished, altered or hampered her discernment and the control of his actions. “
New Ortez staff hearings requested
Questioned by RTL, Me Philippe Courtois, lawyer for the victim’s family, thinks that it is now necessary to know “how we were able to leave in office for so long a doctor who drank several glasses daily? How could the other maternity staff not see or smell the presence of alcohol in this doctor? He asks himself.
He adds: “What is more shocking is to know that a good number of medical acts which she carried out before the facts were done in a state of intoxication. “
For this reason, the lawyer indicates that he will again ask to hear the staff and managers of the private clinic in Orthez, which recently employed Ms. Wauters.
Today this 47-year-old woman is under house arrest in Haute-Vienne and must undergo care in a specialized center in Périgueux to treat her addiction.
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