Jail sentences announced in Hoa Binh deadly medical incident
The People’s Court of Hoa Binh province on January 30 announced sentences to seven defendants implicated in a serious medical incident that killed nine patients at the provincial General Hospital on May 29, 2017.
Defendants at the court
Defendant Bui Manh Quoc, Director of the Tram Anh Water Treatment Co., Ltd received a 54-month jail sentence while Hoang Cong Luong, doctor in the hospital’s Department of Intensive Care was sentenced to 42 months in prison on the charge of “unintentionally causing deaths” in accordance with Clause 2, Article 98 of the Criminal Code 1999.
Defendant Tran Van Son, employee of the hospital’s medical material and equipment division was jailed 42 months, Deputy Director of the hospital and head of the Department of Intensive Care Hoang Dinh Khieu along with head of the division Tran Van Thang 36 months, Director of the hospital Truong Quy Duong and Director of the Thien Son JSC Do Anh Tuan 30 months for “lacking responsibility causing serious consequences” as stipulated in Clause 2, Article 285 of the Criminal Code 1999.
The Hoa Binh General Hospital and Thien Son JSC must compensate nearly 1.7 billion VND and over 728 million VND, respectively to victims.
On May 29, 2017, 18 patients suffered from symptoms of anaphylactic shock like breathing difficulty, sudden blood pressure fall, stomachache and vomiting while receiving kidney dialysis at the kidney dialysis division of the Hoa Binh General Hospital’s Department of Intensive Care. Eight of the patients died in this incident.
According to the indictment of the provincial People’s Procuracy, Quoc directly repaired and maintained the Reverse Osmosis (RO) filter system of dialysis machines.
During the process, however, the machines’ water supply tubes were not purified carefully, leaving chemical residue. After pasteurisation of the RO filter system, Quoc did not check quality of water samples before handing the system over to the hospital.
Son, who was in charge of checking and supervising the replacement and maintenance of the filter system, failed to complete his assigned tasks.
Nephrologist Luong allowed the dialysis treatment to commence without checking water quality.
Thien Son company signed a contract on May 25, 2017 to repair and maintain the RO water filter No.2 used for kidney dialysis at the hospital. However, the firm then sold the contract to Tram Anh Water Treatment Co., Ltd.
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