#1. Dr. Uwe Klima
FT DOCTOR PERMANENTLY DISABLED YOUNG BOY THEN LEFT SINGAPORE TO WORK IN UAE
29 Jan 2015
Dr Uwe Klima, a foreign doctor who used to work at the National University Hospital (NUH) in Singapore is appealing against his conviction of professional misconduct for an incident which happened in 2007.
Meanwhile, he has already jumped ship and is working in the United Arab Emirates.
Dr Klima had wrongly administered an undiluted dose of a heart slowing drug to a two year old patient during surgery. The drug is intended to slow down a patient’s heart beat or even temporarily stop the heart so that doctors can perform surgery.
The drug is usually diluted with blood or some other suitable solution before use, even when it is used for adults.
Because of Dr Klima’s error, the boy suffered severe developmental disabilities and now, at age 10, he has the intellectual ability of a 5 year old and constantly needs help to look after himself.
At first, after the surgery, the parents of the patient were not told of what had happened and it was not until an anonymous letter was sent to the family by someone who was in the operating theatre that day that they discovered what had happened.
The family then filed a complaint to the Singapore Medical Council against Dr Klima in 2008.
SMC then proceeded to take forever to investigate and did not complete the investigations until6 years later.
Meanwhile, in 2010, Dr Klima already moved to UAE and works in a private hospital in Dubai.
In 2014, Dr Klima was finally charged with 2 counts of professional misconduct and was suspended from practicing in Singapore for 6 months. He was given another 3 months suspension for forcing another doctor to carry out a second emergency operation on the boy after the original mistake.
His defence lawyers have said that Dr Klima had assumed the syringe passed to him by the nurse had already been diluted. However, the Singapore Medical Council’s disciplinary committee said that given that the medication is potentially fatal, Dr Klima should have verified that it was diluted before administering it.
Dr Klima has lodged an appeal against the conviction. The appeal court has reserved their judgement for a later date.
FT DOCTOR PERMANENTLY DISABLED YOUNG BOY THEN LEFT SINGAPORE TO WORK IN UAE
29 Jan 2015
Dr Uwe Klima, a foreign doctor who used to work at the National University Hospital (NUH) in Singapore is appealing against his conviction of professional misconduct for an incident which happened in 2007.
Meanwhile, he has already jumped ship and is working in the United Arab Emirates.
Dr Klima had wrongly administered an undiluted dose of a heart slowing drug to a two year old patient during surgery. The drug is intended to slow down a patient’s heart beat or even temporarily stop the heart so that doctors can perform surgery.
The drug is usually diluted with blood or some other suitable solution before use, even when it is used for adults.
Because of Dr Klima’s error, the boy suffered severe developmental disabilities and now, at age 10, he has the intellectual ability of a 5 year old and constantly needs help to look after himself.
At first, after the surgery, the parents of the patient were not told of what had happened and it was not until an anonymous letter was sent to the family by someone who was in the operating theatre that day that they discovered what had happened.
The family then filed a complaint to the Singapore Medical Council against Dr Klima in 2008.
SMC then proceeded to take forever to investigate and did not complete the investigations until6 years later.
Meanwhile, in 2010, Dr Klima already moved to UAE and works in a private hospital in Dubai.
In 2014, Dr Klima was finally charged with 2 counts of professional misconduct and was suspended from practicing in Singapore for 6 months. He was given another 3 months suspension for forcing another doctor to carry out a second emergency operation on the boy after the original mistake.
His defence lawyers have said that Dr Klima had assumed the syringe passed to him by the nurse had already been diluted. However, the Singapore Medical Council’s disciplinary committee said that given that the medication is potentially fatal, Dr Klima should have verified that it was diluted before administering it.
Dr Klima has lodged an appeal against the conviction. The appeal court has reserved their judgement for a later date.
