Intentional or accidental?

Hospital doctor under suspicion after death

An alarming death has occurred at the hospital in Kirchdorf/Krems. A doctor is suspected of having administered overdoses of medication to two patients.(Bild: Haijes Jack)

Was it intentional or accidental? Serious allegations against a doctor at the hospital in Kirchdorf (Upper Austria). One patient has died, another is in intensive care - the doctor is allegedly responsible. Police homicide investigators are now on the case. 

A doctor at Kirchdorf an der Krems Hospital (Upper Austria) is under serious suspicion: The doctor is said to be responsible for the death of one patient, a second narrowly survived. "On Friday, suspicions arose in the treatment of patients in the intensive care unit of the hospital, which obliged us to submit a statement of facts to the public prosecutor's office in Steyr," said the Upper Austrian health holding company at the request of the "Krone". Gesundheitsholding.

Medication is said to have been overdosed
The doctor in question is said to have administered an overdose of medication to patients. Whether this was accidental or deliberate, perhaps because he wanted to relieve people of their suffering, is still under investigation. The health holding company itself assumes that the act was intentional - it is a criminal case, they say. The doctor has since been released and is still at large.

On Friday, suspicions arose in the treatment of patients in the intensive care unit of the hospital in Kirchdorf.

Jutta Oberweger, Sprecherin der OÖ. Gesundheitsholding

The alarm bells rang when a patient unexpectedly ended up in the intensive care unit a few days ago and his health deteriorated. After that, suspicions were quickly raised internally about the doctor. This was because another patient had died a few days earlier, apparently also unexpectedly. However, the person concerned had already been cremated.

Public prosecutor's office was informed
The public prosecutor's office in Steyr had already been informed verbally by Gesundheitsholding. However, there was still no file on Friday, according to a request from the "Krone".

The hospital will submit a written statement and voluntary disclosure to the prosecution on Monday.

Homicide investigators are now taking action
In the meantime, the Life and Limb Group (homicide investigators) of the Upper Austrian State Office of Criminal Investigation, which routinely takes up its work in cases of questionable deaths in hospitals, has also been informed in advance. All documents and records relating to the two cases are secured and then examined. Possible witnesses and thus also employees and colleagues in the department or departments concerned are to be questioned intensively in the coming days.