Hear
Almost nine years after the death of Alejandro Cohn, six doctors today heard the sentence at the end of the trial that had them as accused of manslaughter of the young man, who had a diabetic decompensation on public roads and Died on July 29, 2015He had entered the emergency room of the Melchor Posse municipal hospital in San Isidro in a lucid state and ended up bedridden with brain death and multiple injuries which they were unable to explain throughout the judicial process.
This morning, 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, were found guilty of negligent homicide. The three convicted were doctors Marcelo Toro Solano, Ana María Sánchez and Carla Setti.
Meanwhile, Martín Montagna, María Soledad Seijo and María Quiroga, the other three doctors who were charged in the final stage of the trial, were acquitted. Weeks ago, at the hearing of arguments, Maximiliano Ragazzoli, Darío Ricardo Campos and Marina Vogelin had already been acquitted.
Marcelo Toro Solano was in charge of the ambulance that assisted Cohn when he collapsed on public roads. RHe received a sentence of three years and six months in prison and seven years of disqualification to practice medicine.
Toro Solano was the one who was in the ambulance that assisted Cohn after his collapse on July 27, 2015 when he was riding a motorcycle to play a soccer game with friends. The doctor made contact with the patient, learned that he had nausea and that he was an insulin-dependent diabetic. In his accusation, Molina Pico considered that Toro Solano did not provide the necessary attention in a minor emergency, which ended up becoming fatal for the victim. That is why he asked for the highest penalty.
According to the prosecutor’s chronology, the doctor was in direct contact with the patient without providing him with the relevant care. During the investigation phase, Toro Solano said that he “verified the patient’s health status and recorded it in the medical history,” that the patient “arrived stable and conscious at the hospital” and then transferred him “to the shockroom informing the doctors on duty that he had noticed him dehydrated.” But in the request for elevation to trial by prosecutor Carolina AsprellaIn 2019, he was accused of “acting negligently by failing to perform any medical conduct aimed at diagnosing, treating and compensating the patient.” He was also charged with “failing to provide therapeutic instructions or follow-up” with a “diagnostic and therapeutic omission.”
Toro Solano was the one most targeted by the prosecution at the time of the allegations. For Molina Pico, it was demonstrated that the assistance service arrived at 9:00 p.m. with the doctor in charge of the ambulance and Cohn, between 9:00 p.m. and 9:38 p.m., was under the direct supervision of the professional. “He did not have any type of primary care neither in the hospital nor in the guard. Alejandro lies in box A, nothing more,” said the official.
According to the prosecutor, Toro Solano “was in a position to provide aid, he was in an ambulance that had the necessary supplies to care for a simple condition and he did not do so.” In his argument, he asked: “If I did something else, would death still occur or be it avoided?” The question is the center of everything and from what we see, if we intervened in the medical emergency at the scene, death was avoided. If Toro Solano told him how to treat him, the consequence would have been different.”
Ana María Sánchez is one of the doctors on duty who Alejandro Cohn must have attended the guards’ offices. He received a sentence of one year and eight months in prison and five years of disqualification from practicing medicine.
Sánchez received the patient in the intensive care unit before being transferred to the shockroom.
Carla Setti is the other doctor on duty. She also received the penalty of one year and eight months of conditional imprisonment and five 5 years of disqualification to practice medicine. Setti, along with Sánchez, received Alejandro Cohn in the intensive care room.
Alejandro Cohn, brother of renowned filmmaker Mariano Cohnwas 35 years old when he died from a picture of “hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy”, or brain death that could have occurred for different reasons. But according to the testimony of Cristina Bustos, the forensic doctor of the National Judicial Branch who performed the autopsy of the body, it could have occurred due to not having treated the diabetic decompensation in time.
“There was an episode of diabetes that triggered an emergency. A diabetic episode, if not treated well, can cause events that lead to brain death. A diabetic episode requires urgent attention and in the medical history there is no evidence that this has occurred,” stated Bustos.
Cohn was lucid when he entered the guard and spoke with his family by phone. He was “located in the three spheres” (name, date and location) which allowed him to answer the questions. 15 questions from the Glasgow Coma Scale, used to evaluate the level of consciousness and neurological status of a patient with a possible brain injury. Four hours later he was brain dead and admitted to intensive care. Two days later he died in the Italian Hospital, where he had been transferred at the request of his family. There it was found that, in addition, he had fracture in 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. All injuries consistent with a fall during her hospital stay, as suggested by Bustos.
