A patient entered the operating room for hand surgery and came out with a burn on his left leg. The injury seems to have been caused by a defective heated blanket that was placed on the young patient when he complained of feeling cold. The incident took place in a private clinic in 2019 and was brought before the Single-Member Misdemeanor Court of Thessaloniki.
The court found the anesthesiologist, the clinic’s technical service manager, and its legal representative guilty of bodily harm due to convergent negligence. Each was sentenced to 10 months in prison, suspended for 3 years. At the same time, the court acquitted four individuals who had been referred to trial, including the surgeon, two nurses, and the legal representative of the company selling the heated blanket.
Accepting the prosecutor’s proposal, the court concluded that the device malfunctioned due to the use of an inappropriate component, causing it to reach 54 degrees Celsius and resulting in the burn on the then 22-year-old patient.
