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The three doctors in charge of the guard of the Melchor Posse Municipal Hospitalfrom San Isidro, and responsible for the care of Alejandro Cohn, who He died on July 29, 2015, two days after being admitted due to hypoglycemia, they were found guilty of manslaughter. The young man, who was 35 years old at the time, ended up brain dead due to the lack of primary care and an accurate diagnosis, which led to a condition that worsened in 48 hours to the point where his family had to take the hard line. decision to withdraw mechanical respiratory assistance.
Marcelo Toro Solano, in charge of the ambulance that assisted Cohn when he collapsed on the public road, and Ana Maria Sanchez and Carla Settithe doctors on duty who should have assisted him in the on-call clinics, were found guilty. Toro Solano received a sentence of three years and six months in prison and seven years of disqualification to practice medicine. In respect of Sánchez and Setti both received a sentence of one year and eight months in prison with suspended sentence and five years of disqualification. to practice medicine. None of the three doctors is working at the Melchor Posse in San Isidro.
In addition, Toro Solano will be prohibited from leaving the country, establishing an address and not staying outside of there for more than 24 hours. In addition, he must attend court once a month. The doctor, as established in the ruling, He will not be detained until the sentence becomes final..
While Martin Montagna, Maria Soledad Seijo and Maria Quirogathe other three doctors who arrived charged at the final stage of the trial, were acquitted. At the hearing of the arguments they had already been acquitted Maximiliano Ragazzoli, Dario Ricardo Campos and Marina Vogelin.
After doing an initial review of the causes that caused the death of Alejandro Cohn, a diagnosis of hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy or brain deathhe Judge Facundo Ocampo, head of the Criminal Court No. 4, He explained that he would read the arguments focused on determining whether the accused were in any way responsible for the tragic outcome and Cohn’s death.
The story began with the participation of Solano BullIn his arguments, Judge Ocampo held that the doctor did not provide primary care for hypoglycemia that Cohn had suffered, according to the testimony of the stories that were heard during the trial. “The witness who helped him on the street offered a little sugar to solve the problem, but the ambulance doctor told them no, that they would treat him at the hospital, but that didn’t happen. The ambulance was equipped with all the elements to be attended to, but it did not happen either.; and in the hospital, the care did not arrive,” the ruling stated.
“The experts reported that primary care had not been provided in a condition that was hypoglycemia and severe dehydration. He had to be hydrated, monitored, and given the doses of glucose he needed; there was no doubt that it was an emergency.. The condition of the diabetic is urgent,” she adds. “The doctor’s participation and his responsibility in the incident are clear. The 38 minutes that Cohn was under his care and not under his care were decisive in going from a code yellow situation to a code red, that is, an emergency in a more serious emergency. Toro Solano’s failure to act increased the patient’s risk,” the judge ruled.
Regarding the actions of Sanchez and Setti The grounds for the sentence were based on the responsibility that both professionals had to the same degree as Toro Solano. “They and the ambulance doctor were responsible for the care of the patients and the ambulance trips, All three were equally tasked with providing care and preventing the outcome that ended with Cohn’s death.”, the ruling states. “The three doctors were in charge of the emergency room and their lack of care led to this outcome. All three of them were in the position of guarantors for Cohn and the rest of the patients”, it states.
The trial took place in courts of San Isidro. At the end of the investigation phase, the doctors were charged. Maximiliano Ragazzoli, Dario Ricardo Campos, Marina Vogelin, Martin Montagna, Ana Sanchez, Marcelo Toro Solano, Carla Setti, Maria Quiroga and Soledad Seijo. But at the end of the process three of them were acquitted.
He prosecutor of the case, Diego Molina Picohad requested sentences of up to five years in prison and eight years suspension from the practice of medicine, in line with what was requested by the complaining lawyer, Juan Carlos García Dietzerepresenting the Cohn family. The only difference between the two parties was the request for acquittal for some of the accused during the hearing in which the arguments were read. For the prosecutor there was not enough evidence to accuse Campos, Voguelín, Ragazzoli and Montagna, while García Dietze requested that he also continue the process to the end as the accused.
During the trial, which began on April 16, Alejandro Cohn’s family members gave their testimony, including his brother, the filmmaker Mariano Cohn, his friends, experts who participated in the investigation, doctors, traumatologists, nurses and other witnesses. Today, Mariano, his mother Beatriz, and his father, Mario, were also present. In addition, they were accompanied by the actor, Luis Brandoni, and the filmmaker, Gastón Duprat.
In the process, an ocular inspection was also carried out at the Melchor Romero hospital and the prosecutor’s office asked to open a new process on the actions of Nurses Nancy Edith Flores and Erlith Valverde, who were also involved in Cohn’s care. In the reading of the ruling, this request was supported, so there will be a new investigation into the matter.
Fracture of the right clavicle, injuries to the rib cage on the right side, dislocation and intervertebral separation in the cervical and lumbar area and a scalp abrasion were the injuries that Alejandro Cohn had and that were only confirmed in the Italian Hospital of the city of Buenos Aireswhere he was transferred at the request of his family after verifying several inconsistencies during medical treatment in San Isidro.
On July 29, 2015, his family made the difficult decision to remove respiratory support when confirming the diagnosis of hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy, or brain deathcaused, presumably, by the lack of primary care in the emergency derived from the diabetic episode, as stated by Dr. Cristina Bustos, forensic examiner of the National Judicial Branch who performed the autopsy of the body.
Alejandro became ill on public roads while riding his motorcycle to play a soccer game with friends. He was assisted by Cecilia Masotti and her mother, Cecilia Sanguinetti, who accompanied him in the ambulance along with doctor Toro Solano. The woman stated that she spoke with Alejandro throughout the journey and that they made some jokes, which demonstrated that the patient was oriented in time, space and place.
What came next were two days of terror For Alejandro and his family, since he entered the emergency room lucidly Melchor Posse Municipal Hospital, San Isidrowhere a series of irregularities occurred that were part of the investigation that culminated in the trial for manslaughter and theft of evidence; under the second accusation, the nine defendants had been acquitted.
The Cohns’ story was told in the documentary Blood Brothers, by Carlos De Elíawhich was released before the start of the trial. It details that on August 26, 2015, almost a month after Alejandro’s death, Mario Cohn filed the complaint in criminal court. All the accused doctors filed different appeals arguing for the annulment of the prosecutor’s actions, but they were rejected by the Court of Cassation of the province of Buenos Aires. Four years later, on July 17, 2019, the case was ordered to go to oral trial.
During the investigation stage, the Melchor Posse hospital was raided. There it was proven that Alejandro’s medical history had no continuity. The investigation was able to verify that the on-call and nursing books, the images of the medical history, the x-rays, the tomography scans and the images from the surveillance cameras had disappeared. Furthermore, in the epicrisis, the document that is prepared before the transfer of a patient, the injuries that were later verified in the Italiano are not mentioned.
