Ex-NUH surgeon wins appeal against suspension for professional misconduct

[XingCai]

Ex-NUH surgeon wins appeal against suspension for professional misconduct

Published on Apr 15, 2015 3:36 PM
By Selina Lum



SINGAPORE - A Court of Three Judges has cleared an Austrian heart and lung surgeon of professional misconduct, overturning his nine-month suspension for injecting a two-year-old patient with the undiluted form of a drug used to temporarily stop the heart during an operation.

In 2007, Dr Uwe Klima, who practised at the National University Hospital, operated on the boy to remedy a rare heart condition. During the operation, he assumed that the syringe handed to him by a nurse contained diluted cardioplegia. Cardoplegia, a medication that slows down the heart so that operations can carried out safely, can be used only after it is diluted.

The boy, now 10, suffered developmental disabilities as a result.

In its written judgment published on Wednesday, the court sympathised fully with the patient and his parents for the adverse medical consequences, but noted that the issue in the present proceedings was whether Dr Klima was guilty of professional misconduct.