Almost nine years after the death of Alejandro Cohn, a court ruling convicted only three of the six doctors accused for the event that occurred in July 2015 at the Melchor Posse Hospital. “What I reported was proven, which is that my brother was killed in the guard”declared the filmmaker and brother of the victim Mariano Cohn.
A sentence that took almost a decade
In accordance with what was ordered by Judge Facundo Ocampo of the Correctional Court No. 4 of San Isidro, they were sentenced Marcelo Solano, Ana Sanchez and Carla Settiwhile, on the other hand, they were acquitted María Soledad Seijo, María Viviana Quiroga and Martín Montagna.
The longest sentence was imposed on Marcelo Solano, who must serve 3 years and 6 months in prison and 7 years of disqualification from practicing medicine for being criminally responsible for the crime of manslaughterAlthough he was sentenced to effective imprisonment, he will only go to jail when the sentence is final.
Both Ana María Sánchez and Carla Setti were sentenced to the same penalty of one year and eight months in prison and 5 years of disqualificationsince it was determined that they committed the same crime. Unlike Solano, for now it has been established that both will remain free because the sentences are non-carcelable.
The testimony of Mariano Cohn
The filmmaker considered that the sentence represents an important step, given that “As of today, three doctors will no longer practice medicine and one will go to prison.”and explained that the professionals who treated his brother “did not treat him as a diabetic patient.”
“It is a first step, a first instance, but it does not end here. We are going to ask that a case be opened for cover-up by the authorities of the municipality and the hospital“, said the director who has been investigating Alejandro’s death for almost nine years.
He also shared that His expectations are that what happened to his brother doesn’t happen to anyone else.“Little by little we will get to the truth. The courts and the hospital still have many answers to give.”
Likewise, he insisted that “the chaos that was the hospital” could be demonstrated and that now the acquitted doctors must “put on a mask to care for patients.” To close, he referred to the progress that this ruling represents in the legal history of the country: “Justice in Argentina goes on a different path than that of reason and truth.”
The case
According to the criminal investigation by prosecutor Carolina Asprella, on that Saturday, July 27, 2015, Alejandro was traveling by motorcycle and was heading to a soccer field where he was going to play with friends. Then he began to feel sick because of a abrupt fall in sugar.
The victim was taken by ambulance to the “Dr. Melchor Ángel Posse” Hospital in San Isidro, where he was admitted conscious. and answered a series of questions per protocol, but without showing any complications.
When his parents arrived after nine at night, they found Alejandro on an emergency stretcher with “very loud” snoring and, although his father called the doctors, the man was treated several hours later.
Some time later, the patient was admitted to intensive care with blows, a tracheostomy and an induced coma. Two days later the family requested that he be transferred to the Italian Hospital, where he died after the decision to disconnect it.
With the report obtained, the head of intensive care at the Italian Hospital filed a complaint for a suspicious death and began an investigation. The autopsy revealed a dislocation of the cervical vertebra with rupture of the bone marrow, dislocation of the thoracic vertebra, fracture of the right clavicle and fracture of the lateral arches.
A month after her death, on August 26, 2015, her father filed a complaint in a criminal court. The defendants, for their part, filed various appeals claiming the nullity of the actions of the prosecutor’s offices, all of which were rejected by the Court of Cassation of the province of Buenos Aires. Only after four years, on July 17, 2019, was the case ordered to be brought to trial.
During the investigation phase, the Melchor Posse hospital was raided and it was found that Alejandro’s medical history was not continuous. The investigation showed that there was a huge gap from medical studies to surveillance camera images. In the document that was prepared before the transfer of a patient, the injuries that were later verified in the Italiano are not referenced.
Mariano Cohn portrayed his search for justice in the documentary Brothers, a story of bloodwhere he narrates his attempt to unravel the mysterious death of Alejandro.
