la cour d’appel condamne un médecin après la mort d’un enfant de 2 ans
In April of that year, 2-year-old Oscar had his tonsils removed. He died a month later from cardiorespiratory complications. In its decision, the court condemned the doctor to a fine of 10,000 euros for manslaughter.
On the civil action, the court confirms the exoneration of the Saint-Augustin clinic and its insurer, the doctor not being an employee of the care establishment. For the rest, the case will be argued in May 2023. The day after the judgment of the Court of Appeal, the doctor and his Parisian lawyers filed an appeal in cassation.
A canceled transaction
Emmanuelle and Jürgen Reinke first adopted a girl, born in Mali, who is now of age. In 2011, after long months of an administrative procedure, they went again to the Malian capital, to Bamako, to adopt a boy whom they call Oscar. A ray of sunshine within this very unique family. “His sister in heaven, this baby needed love,” says Emmanuelle Reinke in a moved voice.
“The bottle is what caused the death”
Oscar was cheerful but, over time, his adoptive parents noticed repeated snoring and pauses in breathing while he slept. Seeing that he often had a cold, they became worried and consulted a first hospital in July 2011, which preferred to cancel the tonsillectomy due to the child’s acute breathing difficulties.
Nine months later, Oscar was admitted to the Saint-Augustin clinic. The intervention took place without difficulty “and according to appropriate technical acts and care”, but it was when he woke up that things got complicated. Oscar was having trouble breathing. A mask was then kept close to his face. His condition seems to be improving, a bottle was given to him by his mother with the agreement of the anesthesiologist. “I had no news since the morning and, at 5 p.m., I was called to go down to the block, remembers Emmanuelle Reinke. I had to serve as a stimulus. Oscar was awake but he closed his eyes. The doctor asked me to prepare a bottle because he was weak. He drank some of it. »
a recklessness
The doctor, referent in pediatric anesthesia, had been called in for reinforcement in the morning by his two colleagues in charge of the operation, after several unsuccessful intubation attempts.
“The bottle is what caused the death,” says Me Jean-Christophe Coubris, lawyer for the Reinke family. Reintubated, Oscar vomited and suffered gastric aspiration. After giving it up, the anesthesiologist decided to transfer the child to the CHU. Admitted to pediatric intensive care, his condition did not improve and he died on May 8, 2012.
The Court of Appeal, in its judgment, finding “recklessness” with regard to the defendant, “by deciding to keep the child under surveillance at the clinic when the intervention had not brought the expected improvement on breathing difficulties”. Taking up the conclusions of the experts, the court concluded that “the re-intubation of the child was complicated by an accident of food inhalation which led to prolonged cardio-circulatory arrest and severe brain damage at the cause of death”.