Six doctors sent to trial over suspected deaths at Bucharest hospital

Four intensive-care specialists and two medical assistants from Bucharest’s Sfântul Pantelimon Hospital have been sent to trial by Bucharest prosecutors in a case involving suspicious deaths in the intensive-care unit. The accused are charged with qualified murder, attempted qualified murder, attempted incitement to commit an offence, false testimony, intellectual forgery, and incitement to intellectual forgery.

According to investigators, between May 2023 and April 2024, the medical staff deliberately reduced life-support treatment for patients without medical justification in order to accelerate their deaths. Prosecutors say four patients died, one case remained at the attempt stage, and in a sixth case, indications to reduce doses were not implemented by staff.

“Once a patient was selected, the accused resorted, alternatively or cumulatively, to several methods.”

The investigation found that staff selected patients they subjectively considered to have no chance of survival, without any objective medical criterion or legal procedure. Once selected, they allegedly used alternative or combined methods, including abruptly reducing vasopressor support administered through an infusion pump.

One method involved lowering the noradrenaline dose from high therapeutic values to a minimum of 1 millilitre per hour, vital for maintaining blood pressure in patients in shock. Another method involved reducing the oxygen fraction delivered by the ventilator to 21 percent, equivalent to the concentration in ambient air.

Prosecutors note that the conduct occurred between May 2023 and April 2024, although the method of operation may have been applied over several years. The six accused had a legal and professional obligation to provide care to all hospitalized patients regardless of the severity of their condition.

The case was transmitted to judges on October 30, and the six accused were handed over to the court. The accused are charged with qualified murder, attempted qualified murder, attempted incitement to commit an offence, false testimony, intellectual forgery, and incitement to intellectual forgery.