Lungau woman (66) died

“Serious errors” in fatal hospital treatment

The Tamsweg provincial hospital(Bild: Holitzky Roland)

One and a half years after the death of a woman from Lungau (66) following a gastrointestinal endoscopy, an expert points to serious mistakes: "Serious errors" are said to have led to her death. The victim's lawyer hopes that the investigation will be reopened.

A local woman (66) has back and abdominal pain and visits the GP. Her circulation collapses there. The doctor sends her to Tamsweg Hospital - the next day, a gastrointestinal endoscopy is performed, which leads to the patient's death. This happened in January 2023. The hospital apologizes afterwards, the public prosecutor's office commissions an investigation and closes it completely in May on the basis of an expert opinion.

Victim's lawyer Stefan Rieder(Bild: Tschepp Markus)

Possibly wrongly? This is what the lawyer for the victims' family, Stefan Rieder from the Weißer Ring victims' protection association, suggests and speaks of "gross errors before and during the colonoscopy". Rieder refers to an expert: "In summary, it can be stated that serious mistakes were made in the treatment of Ms. P. at three points in time, whereby death could have been prevented with varying degrees of probability at all three points in time if the treatment had been correct." These are the words of a court-certified medical expert, written down in an 18-page expert report.

"Lack of organization" and "massive violence"
This was commissioned by the family of the victim. The family is suing the Salzburger Landeskliniken (SALK), to which the Tamsweg hospital belongs, under civil law. And the medical expert emphasizes in the report: "My conclusions diametrically contradict the expert opinion commissioned by the public prosecutor's office." According to the private expert, a colonoscopy was contraindicated.

This case is an example of how patients who do not go to a central hospital have to expect inferior medical services.

Anwalt Stefan Rieder

In other words, this treatment should not have been carried out. Instead, other examinations, such as a computer tomography (CT) or ultrasound, should have been carried out, according to the doctor: "This is standard practice in Austrian hospitals." He also points out that not enough blood was administered, calling this a "serious lack of organization", and notes the use of "massive violence" during the colonoscopy.

On behalf of the victim's family, Rieder hopes that the prosecution will reopen the investigation - based on the new findings of the private expert report.