Riga City Court on Monday sentenced a nurse at the Children’s Clinical University Hospital (BKUS) to two and a half years in prison after she accidentally mixed up medication intended for a patient last November, resulting in the patient’s death.
As an additional penalty, the nurse was banned from practising medicine for four years.
The court, however, decided not to award the 500,000 euros in compensation for non-pecuniary damages requested by the victims.
Judge Imants Dzenis explained that, after reviewing the case law cited by the defence, the court concluded that determining compensation for damages in these criminal proceedings could be premature. The victims will therefore retain the right to seek compensation through civil proceedings.
A representative of the defendant said the defence would consider appealing the ruling and would request the full written judgment. She stressed that legal considerations suggest that
an actual custodial sentence may not be appropriate in the defendant’s case.
The court imposed the same principal and additional penalties requested by the prosecutor during closing arguments. The prosecutor therefore currently sees no grounds to appeal the ruling, LETA was told by the Prosecutor’s Office.
The parties to the proceedings may ask the court to prepare the full judgment. Once it has been received, the ruling can be appealed within ten working days.
Information in the court calendar shows that the defendant is Jeļena Ugurenko. The nurse admits her guilt and regrets what happened, her defence lawyer Aldis Liepiņš previously told journalists.
He described the incident as a “fatal combination of circumstances” and a great tragedy. He also said that no one becomes a nurse intending for such a tragedy to occur.
According to the lawyer,
his client lives with what happened every day, has apologised to the victims, admits her guilt and regrets her actions.
Liepiņš also said that compensation for the harm caused has begun to be paid, although he did not disclose the amount.
The lawyer noted that the case also raises questions about work organisation and the storage of medicines. In his view, consideration should be given to whether dangerous medicines should be stored separately from other preparations in order to reduce the risk of similar errors in the future.
At the beginning of the first court hearing, the parties requested that subsequent proceedings be held behind closed doors. After hearing their views, the court granted the request, ruling that the case would continue to be heard in closed sessions, while the judgment would be announced at a public court hearing.
As previously reported, the nurse was charged with negligent performance of her professional duties, which resulted in the death of a minor patient due to her negligence, the Prosecutor’s Office told LETA.
According to the Prosecutor’s Office, the defendant, while working as a healthcare professional during her shift at the end of November last year, prepared a sodium bicarbonate solution prescribed by a doctor for administration to the patient the following day.
According to the indictment, while negligently performing her professional duties,
the nurse failed to ensure that the correct medication had been prepared.
When preparing the infusion bag, she used potassium chloride solution instead of sodium bicarbonate solution, but labelled the bag “Sodium bicarbonate”.
The following morning, administration of the incorrectly prepared solution to the patient began. Shortly afterwards, she began experiencing dizziness and breathing difficulties.
Despite resuscitation efforts, the patient’s life could not be saved. The administration of the potassium-containing solution caused irreversible cardiac arrest, resulting in the child’s death.
The defendant is currently subject to a preventive measure that does not involve deprivation of liberty, as well as an additional restriction prohibiting her from practising her profession.
As previously reported, following the child’s death at BKUS as a result of the medication mix-up, Health Minister Hosams Abu Meri (New Unity) ordered several investigations and inspections both at the hospital and at other medical institutions.
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