A prominent cardiologist in Berlin is facing life behind bars after allegedly murdering two patients at Europe’s biggest hospital when he allegedly injected them with a lethal cocktail of drugs.
Prosecutors have demanded a life sentence against Dr Gunther Schmidt, 56, after he allegedly murdered two patients at Europe’s largest university hospital, the Charite – Universitaetsmedizin Berlin, Germany.
They have also called for him to be banned for life from practising medicine.
Schmidt was a senior physician in the cardiological intensive care unit at the hospital.
He has been suspended since 19th August 2022 on full pay for being taken into custody on 8th May 2023.
He has been on trial since October last year and the verdict is set to be handed down today, Friday, 26th April.
His alleged victims Ulrich B., 73, and Margarete G., 73, full names withheld due to local privacy laws, died on 21st November 2021 and 23rd July 2023.
Both were seriously ill.
German media reported that a 28-year-old nurse observed the doctor injecting the patients with high doses of a sedative called propofol, saying that the patients were already dying and that it was so that they would not suffer.
But the court was shocked to hear testimony from toxicologist Professor Roland Seifert, 63, who said that an autopsy of the patients revealed that the propofol injection also contained lethal doses of the drugs mepivacaine and ketamine.
Mepivacaine is reportedly not available in the intensive care unit at the hospital and neither is Kata mean, with both drugs apparently brought in by the doctor.
Professor Seifert told the court: “That’s intense. I am shocked. This must have been injected shortly before death.
“Only someone could have brought that with them. Mepivacaine and ketamine were heavily dosed. Who did it and when is missing from the documents.”
The public prosecutor said: “he abused his position as a doctor for selfish, base motives.
“He wanted to assert his discretion as to when life was still worth living and when it was not.”
The prosecutor also stated his “surprise” that only the 28-year-old nurse noticed that anything was wrong.
He added: “It stands to reason that there were other cases.”
Investigators found a whole folder in his office listing numerous deaths, according to local media.
The verdict is due today, Friday, 26th April.
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Story By: Joseph Golder, Sub-Editor: Joseph Golder, Agency: Newsflash
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