Sick refugee child not helped fine

Sick Refugee Child Help Denied: Fines

04/16/2014

A year old refugee child was denied assistance in a Frankish reception center despite suffering a serious infection. Three employees of the facility were now fined for failing to provide assistance. They had refused to call an ambulance for the Serbian boy.

Help for one-year refugee child denied
For little Leonardo, almost any lifesaving help would have come too late. The then one-year seriously ill boy had been denied assistance in the central reception facility for asylum seekers (ZAE) in Zirndorf in central Franconia. When the Serbian parents asked the gatekeepers to call an ambulance for their obviously ill son in December 2011, they did not comply. Three employees of the reception center have now been fined by the Fürth district court. For example, one employee of the institution has to pay 60 daily rates of 40 euros each and two gatekeepers have also been sentenced to 60 daily rates of 45 and 50 euros, respectively. The judgments were for failure to provide assistance as well as negligent assault by omission.

Judge speaks of heartless behavior
The boy was suffering from a massive bacterial infection. Despite their parents' urgent requests, the gatekeepers had not called a doctor or an ambulance, but called on the father to get a medical certificate first. And the employee had not called a doctor, but sent the family on foot in wintry temperatures to a doctor. In practice, the local pediatrician had the little Leonardo immediately taken to a clinic where his life could only be barely rescued. The judge spoke at the trial on Tuesday of heartless behavior that he could think of nothing more.

Doctor was acquitted of the charge of negligent assault
A doctor on duty, who had examined the child in the reception center and who had been charged with negligent assault, was acquitted by the district court of Fürth. The doctor had only diagnosed the boy with a febrile infection, which he did not consider to be more threatening and prescribed fever suppositories. Later, however, it turned out that the child was suffering from a meningococcal infection. The bacteria triggered in him the so-called Waterhouse-Friedrichsen syndrome, whereby the blood coagulates and the skin or other tissue die off. The boy stayed two weeks in an artificial coma, had to undergo extensive skin grafts and lost a toe and a finger.

Child should have been treated earlier
As a physician from Klinikum Fürth testified in court, the small child would have had to be treated earlier. Presumably, the boy suffered from severe pain early in the morning. According to the doctor, the child was no longer responsive and could not breathe shortly thereafter. It first got high fever and then became apathetic and got dark blue patches on the skin. At the trial, an expert from the University of Erlangen said that even with treatment, this disease is fatal in 90 percent of cases. And the doctor from Klinikum Fürth explained that every hour counts for this disease. The Bavarian Refugee Council had been critical of the conditions in the reception center weeks ago: „Refugees who are housed in an initial reception center are dependent on the behavior of the local staff for the greatest benefit. In the ZAE Zirndorf they are managed ice cold - Leonardo almost to death.“ (Sb)