Court sentences nurse to prison over fatal medication mix-up

LSM reports that a Riga court on Monday sentenced a nurse at the Children’s Clinical University Hospital to two and a half years in prison after she accidentally gave a patient the wrong medication last November. The patient died.

The nurse was also barred from practising medicine for four years. The court did not award the claimants the €500,000 in compensation they had sought, saying they could pursue compensation through civil proceedings.

The nurse’s defence said it would consider appealing and would request the full written judgment. Her lawyer said legal considerations could support a sentence without actual imprisonment. The judgment can be appealed within 10 working days after the full text is received. Prosecutors told LETA they currently saw no grounds to appeal because the court imposed the main and additional sentences they had requested.

The court calendar identified the nurse as Jelena Ugurenko. Her lawyer, Aldis Liepiņš, said she admitted guilt, regretted what happened and had apologised to the claimants. He said compensation payments had begun but did not disclose the amount.

Liepiņš also raised questions about work organisation and the storage of medicines, saying it should be considered whether dangerous medicines should be kept separately from other preparations to reduce the risk of similar errors.