2007 Malpractice Case Closed, Verdict Finalized
The Supreme Court today rejected an appeal by Carmen Heinväli, a Pärnu doctor convicted of criminal negligence over a 2007 incident in which a baby was born with a permanent disability.
Heinväli, who was an on-duty physician in the case in question, was handed a one-year suspended sentence in February. As the Supreme Court has now rejected her appeal, that sentence will go into effect.
She was found guilty of failing to correctly evaluate the course of a patient's labor, as a result of which the health of both the mother and the newborn were severely harmed.
The court also awarded the victim civil damages totaling 23,330 euros, which Pärnu Hospital must pay.
Heinväli was originally convicted in 2010, given an eight-month suspended sentence and ordered to pay around 1,500 euros in fines. But she was not stripped of her license to practice medicine and civil damages were also dismissed.
The verdict was upheld by the district court in June, 2010, but the Supreme Court ordered a retrial in November 2010, saying that the Pärnu County Court and a district court had used the findings of a forensic medicine report that lacked certain criteria required by law, such as an evaluation of the examination results and a statement of grounds for the experts' opinion.
Heinväli maintains her innocence.
