The building where the High Court is located, Photo: Boris Pejović
Doctors from the Infectious Diseases Clinic of the Clinical Center of Montenegro were acquitted today of the criminal offense of “serious offense against human health”, namely for failing to treat Ivana Šoć, who died from the swine flu virus.
The first-instance verdict was pronounced today at the Higher Court in Podgorica.
In a previous verdict in November 2018, Dragan Obradović, a doctor at the Infectious Diseases Clinic of the Clinical Center of Montenegro, was sentenced to one year in prison for the criminal offense of “serious offense against human health”, namely for failing to treat Ivana Šoć, who died from the swine flu virus. The court then acquitted the head of the Infectious Diseases Clinic, Dr. Brankica Dupanović, and Dr. Bogdanka Andrić, of charges of negligent treatment.
The late Šoć was treated at the Infectious Diseases Clinic from 12 to 18 February 2011, when she was discharged in a very serious condition, and died the next day in Cetinje. According to the expert’s findings, the death of patient Šoć was caused by suffocation resulting from complications caused by the AH1N1 virus (swine flu).
According to the indictment, the doctors of the Clinical Center, Obradović and Dupanović, committed a criminal offense – a serious offense against human health.
Ivana Šoć was treated at the Infectious Disease Clinic from February 12 to 18, 2011, when she was discharged in a very serious condition, and less than 24 hours later she died in Cetinje. Despite the severe clinical picture, in the midst of the H1N1 flu epidemic, doctors did not suspect flu, nor did they administer antiviral therapy, as recommended by the Institute for Public Health and the Ministry of Health.
The autopsy report showed that the cause of death was suffocation due to severe swelling of the lungs, which occurred as a result of infection with the H1N1 flu virus, and the defendants, the indictment says, lightly assumed that they would not appear.
According to the indictment of the injured Šoć family, Dr. Andrić is charged with having acted obviously negligently on February 18, 2011, from 02:15,00 p.m. to 16,30:02 p.m., as the on-call physician at the Infectious Diseases Clinic of the KCCG, during her on-call duty, discharging and leaving the Clinic of the patient – the now deceased Ivana Šoć, who had previously been issued a discharge certificate on February 18, 2011, and who left the Clinic in an extremely poor general health condition with the help of her sister Ana and two other people who carried her to the vehicle.
guilty, in accordance with medical ethics and international conventions, of not performing a visit at the beginning of the duty shift, nor of becoming familiar with Šoć’s health condition, nor of the already written discharge letter, which did not contain the signature of the Director of the Clinic as consent to discharge the patient, and of failing to begin treatment of a life-threatening patient who died the next day.
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