Due to inadequate treatment for a hip injury, Feriz Suljević (58) from Štoj near Ulcinj was paid around 13 euros by the bar hospital at the beginning of this year, of which 9.400 euros were paid for non-material and material damages and 3.360 euros in court costs.
This is the decision of the High Court in Podgorica, whose Council overturned the verdict of the Basic Court in Ulcinj, by which the hospital in Bar Suljević had to pay more than 30 thousand euros. Judges Snežana Aleksić, Natalija Boričić and Ljiljana Šoškić, in the explanation of the verdict, based on the presented evidence, did not dispute the omissions of the medical staff at the Bar during the care and treatment of Suljević, but judged that the fees and costs awarded were too high.
Hospital in Bar"Compensation for non-material damage in the form of a monetary equivalent aims at satisfaction, not compensation. The amount of compensation for material damage was estimated based on the supplementary report of a financial expert," the explanation of the verdict states.
Suljević's legal representative, lawyer Bojana Ćirović, announced a review of the High Court verdict.
She assessed that the court, when determining the amount of benefits and expenses, had to value more the severity of the injury and the disability that led Suljević to a disability pension.
As a taxi driver, Suljević earned bread for himself and his family, until October 2011, when he suffered a fracture of the neck of his left femur during a fall in the backyard. He was treated in the Bar hospital from October 1 to 10. With a longette, prescribed therapy and advice to rest, he was discharged to home treatment. At the follow-up examination on October 31, immobilization was removed from his leg and he was advised to rest for four weeks. Suljević says that after seven days he went to physical therapy at the hospital in Risno, but that there they noted the urgency of the operation.
He believes today that he would not have been disabled if he had been operated on in time. This is confirmed by the findings and opinion of the Forensic Medicine Board. of the Faculty of Medicine in Belgrade, which concludes "that such a fracture is treated operatively within the first 24 hours of the injury".
"In the medical documentation, there is no reason why the injury could be treated non-operatively. There was no reason to abandon the gold standard treatment method," said board member prof. Dr. Goran Tulić.
He stated that, if the hospital in Bar was not technically equipped for the operation, the patient had to be referred to the KBC in Podgorica. Suljević was operated on only a month after the injury, although he was hospitalized in Bar on the same day he was injured.
The council assessed that the first-instance court, based on the evidence and findings, "properly found that the conditions of civil-legal responsibility were met on the part of the defendant due to the doctor's failure to act in accordance with the rules of the medical profession."
The higher court assessed the complaints of the defendant as lump-sum, that the Forensic Medicine Board did not have enough opportunities to draw a proper conclusion as to whether or not there was a fusion of the plaintiff's fracture based on the documentation.
"The board based its opinion on the regular medical procedure for collecting this type of injury, that is, on the obligation to perform the operation within the first 24 hours of the injury, which was not respected," the explanation points out.
The expert and the Board disagree about the treatment
Super expert examination of the Forensic Medical Board from Belgrade ordered the first instance court at the request of the prosecutor due to contradictory findings and opinions of the forensic medical expert and the Forensic Medical Board of the Faculty of Medicine in Podgorica.
In the first report dated September 10, 9, forensic medical expert Dr. Krsto Nikolić assessed that Suljević's treatment in the Bar hospital "was completely adequate, carried out according to all contemporary doctrinal positions and standards of medical practice and science, without a single omission."
Following the objection of Suljević's lawyer, Darko Hajduković, Nikolić, by order of the court, made a supplementary report on 25.3.2013 in which he expressed a diametrically opposed opinion.
"The treatment of Suljević in the hospital in Bar was not adequate or in accordance with the modern principles of medical practice and science", it is written in the conclusion of the supplementary finding.
The reason for the contrary opinion, according to Nikolić, was the findings of the radiologist, recordings and CDs that were not at his disposal when the first report was prepared.
Since the lawyer of the Bar hospital Sonja Mažibrada completely objected to the supplementary report, and bearing in mind that Suljević's defense attorney did the same, when it came to the first opinion, judge Pero Lukić accepted Mažibrada's proposal to engage the Forensic Medical Board of the Faculty of Medicine in Podgorica .
On November 26.11, 2013, based on the available documentation, the board assessed that Suljević was nevertheless treated adequately in Bar and in accordance with modern doctrines and standards of medical practice and science.
"The decrease in general life activity in Suljević is 30 percent, but it is not causally related to the choice of treatment method in the Bar hospital nor to the patient's treatment, but to the existence of the endoprosthesis," the Board's opinion says.
See more:
Download the app and follow the news
FOLLOW US ON
