Two hospital doctors charged with manslaughter
The events are old and back to the end of February 2010. On Friday in the early evening, Bianca was brought to the hospital due to severe stomach pain and vomiting. She passed away on the following Monday morning.
Grief-stricken, the father and mother filed a complaint at the gendarmerie for ‘failure to help a person in danger’. They don’t understand why their daughter wasn’t transferred to Guadeloupe when her vomiting got worse over the weekend and she had a medical history. Two months earlier, she had undergone surgery for peritonitis in Guadeloupe.
An autopsy was ordered by the Public Prosecutor’s department in order to find out the causes of death. The findings revealed that the child had died from an acute bowel obstruction. The Deputy Prosecutor [Jacques Louvier at the time] had then opened an inquiry for manslaughter against X; the investigation was supposed to establish the circumstances of the hospitalization and the girl’s treatment at the hospital.
Three medical expertise assessments were delivered in the end. And, according to our sources, all of them reveal that a medical evacuation to Guadeloupe should have been ordered on Sunday morning. However, this decision was made only during the night from Sunday to Monday. Bianca was supposed to be transferred on Monday morning. But she died early on Monday morning.
The pediatrician and the surgeon who followed Bianca during her stay at the hospital are charged with manslaughter. They will appear before the Saint-Martin Criminal Court on Thursday.
