April 07, 2022

Seeking justice for victims of medical malpractice in Bosnia

topic:	Health and Sanitation
located:	Bosnia and Herzegovina
editor:	Katarina Panić

In 2014, a young woman in the Bosnian town of Prijedor got appendicitis. She rapidly went to the local hospital, where the surgeon removed the ruptured appendix, but also removed her healthy ovary, without her permission. It took eight years of a lengthy legal battle to prove him guilty. Today is World Health Day, which for victims of medical malpractice like her is associated with demanding justice: partial and slow, but justice nonetheless.

“I never thought this would happen,” the victim told FairPlanet. 

Soon after recovering from the wrong surgery, she filed a lawsuit. The hospital in which he was employed fired him, but another one hired him shortly after. He has been practising regularly on patients at the largest clinic in Republika Srpska. Even after the final verdict found him guilty, he has been able to continue practising for an additional 20 months. Exhausting all his options, he even requested that the court excuse his jail sentence so he could assist with the recovery for COVID-19, despite the slowing down of the spread of the virus and the lack of emergencies for months; the hospitals even supported him in this request. However, justice prevailed, his request was denied and he was admitted into prison last month.

“I can't believe he is finally in jail. It is only for a year, but nevermind,” the victim said.

It is surprising that an issue like this should be news at all when this should be the normal and immediate consequence for such an irresponsible act. Why is this an exception rather than the rule in Bosnia? It is certainly not that the judiciary system allows such oversight, but rather that the cultural mindset in Eastern European post-communist societies idolise doctors and place them on the highest rank of the social ladders. Doctors are used to feeling blameless and, so to say, untouchable.

“I remember how everyone told me not even to try suing the doctor. That is doomed to fail in advance,” the woman explained to FairPlanet. “No one sues doctors for their mistakes. ‘You are going to need them again, and they could get revenge. You don’t have a chance. It’s better to give up.’  Hardly anyone was on my side. Nevertheless, I could not give up,” the woman told FairPlanet. 

The media in Bosnia and the neighbouring countries reported on the case from the very beginning. The surgeon’s full identity was revealed while only the woman’s initials were used. Her identity was protected even by those outlets that don’t usually follow these professional standards in journalism. Seemingly, it was one of the ways of showing solidarity with the victim and respect for her courage to stand up against the doctor.  

Image by Guillaume Piron

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