The Algarve gynecologist facing charges of negligent homicide over what was meant to be a “small surgery” to a young woman’s ovaries received a blow in court last week.
A specialist witness for the doctors’ association “Ordem dos Médicos” told the court that the technique used by the female doctor was “not the best” when it came to lesions in large blood vessels.
Reporting on this latest twist in the ongoing case, Correio da Manhã said the expert added that “in any situation emerging, the loss of one or two minutes is very important”.
The case centres on the tragic death of 27-year-old nurse Vera Alves, who haemorrhaged as a result of an operation at the Hospital Particular do Algarve in Alvor, in 2011.
Bulgarian gynaecologist Madlen Yossif Benoun is up before just one judge in what the Portuguese newspaper calls a singular court.
Dr Benoun is accused of making “a mistake that resulted in lesions in large blood vessels,” writes CM.
“The Public Ministry contends that the doctor did not follow the adequate technical procedure” for the operation, either through “lack of care, or inability,” added the paper.
Vera Alves’ husband, Jorge Filipe, is reported to be “unable to accept” what happened to his wife. He has be fighting to see “justice done” since her death, and his lawyer, João Grade, told Lusa news agency last year that he is asking for €500,000 in compensation from both the doctor and the Alvor hospital – the latter being what he claims to be “civilly responsible” for the nurse’s death.
Dr Benoun is understood to have remained in active practice for the Hospital Particular since Vera Alves’ death.
The case continues.
