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Chief engineer of Ecomedservice may be charged with dereliction of duty over post-surgery death

 

The chief engineer of Ecomedservice, a large private clinic in downtown Minsk, may be charged with dereliction of duty over the death of a young woman, Yuliya Kubarava, following plastic surgery, according to the Minsk city office of the Investigative Committee of Belarus.

The offense carries penalties ranging from two years of “restricted freedom” to five years in prison.

The 25-year-old Kubarava went into a coma during or shortly after the reconstructive nose surgery at Ecomedservice on March 26. She died on April 23. Investigators linked the death to a faulty medical ventilator, claiming that it had malfunctioned for some 40 minutes during the surgery.

Alyaksandr Lukashenka directed on May 3 that the medical personnel and managers of Ecomedservice who are responsible for the death should be dismissed and punished severely.

The director and the chief engineer of the clinic were subsequently arrested and so were four members of the surgical team that had carried out the operation. The surgeon who had operated on Ms. Kubarava and the nurse who had assisted him were soon released.

All six individuals have been given suspect status in the case. None of them have yet been formally charged. // BelaPAN