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PATIENT

Heart surgeon leaves 16cm of metal in patient

A patient recovering from heart surgery has launched legal action after finding his doctor left him more than a prescription for painkillers. Mysterious pains led to the discovery of several pieces of a metal probe in his arteries.

Heart surgeon leaves 16cm of metal in patient
File photo: Andy G/Flickr

A 50-year-old patient from the Rhône-Alpes region of south-east France might have been forgiven for thinking that surgery was the best thing for him, after suffering a heart attack in 2010.

It turns out, however, that the cure may have been worse than the disease, after six separate pieces of a metal probe, measuring up to 7 cm in length, were found in his arteries, seven months after his operation.

The unlucky patient, Nourredine Lamache, underwent an invasive probe at the CHU hospital in Annecy, in July 2012, but all did not go smoothly thereafter.

“I had pins and needles in my right arm, and a prickling pain in my head. I couldn’t sleep, and I had a pain in my shoulder,” Lamache told French daily Le Parisien on Tuesday.

Devoid of explanations, he consulted an angiologist (blood vessel and vein specialist) in February this year. A scan of his arteries revealed something out of the ordinary – several metal fragments, between 3 and 7 cm long.

The pieces of a broken probe had, unbelievably, been left inside Lamache’s body after his 2012 operation and were moving slowly towards his brain, causing serious risk of a stroke.

“I could have died. I’m waiting for the surgeon’s apology,” Lamache told Le Parisien.

Surgeons opened him once again and removed the metal earlier this month.

But his troubles didn’t end there, however. Further scans and consultations with doctors suggest that Lamache’s arteries are still home to three other fragments of the broken metal probe – in his arm, shoulder and the base of his neck.

According to Le Parisien, he is still deciding whether or not to go under the knife once more to have them removed. In the meantime, Lamache is taking action of another kind.

His lawyer, Caroline Colomb, told Le Parisien, “The error here is obvious. And we will be demanding compensation.”

For its part, the hospital has offered Lamache their services, and is seeking an amiable, out-of-court settlement.

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DOCTOR

Syrian doctor in Germany accused of war crimes

A Syrian doctor living in Germany is being investigated on suspicion of carrying out crimes against humanity at a military hospital in the war-torn country.

Syrian doctor in Germany accused of war crimes
A police wagon in front of the Federal Prosecutor's Office in Karlsruhe. Photo: DPA

Federal prosecutors suspect the man of beating and torturing men arrested by the Syrian regime while working as a doctor in the hospital in the city of Homs, a report in Spiegel magazine Friday said.

The federal prosecutor's office in the southwestern city of Karlsruhe declined to comment when approached by AFP. 

The man, identified only as Hafiz A., reportedly moved to Germany in 2015 and now lives and works as a doctor in the state of Hesse.

READ: Germany plans to deport 'dangerous' Syrian criminals 

Two witnesses told investigators that the man and a colleague withheld medication from an epileptic patient and then forced him to take a pill that caused his condition to rapidly deteriorate.

The doctor and other men finally beat the patient to death, the witnesses have alleged. His family is said to have found his body the next day with bloody wounds on his face and holes in his skull.

Two further witnesses, former doctors at the military hospital, said the man had also intentionally operated on an opponent of the regime without anaesthetic.

He is also alleged to have poured alcohol onto another man's genitals and then set him on fire.

The accused has informed his lawyer that he denies all the accusations, the report said.

According to the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group, at least 60,000 people have been killed under torture or as a result of terrible conditions in detention centres since the start of the uprising against Syrian president Bashar al-Assad in March 2011.

In April, the first court case worldwide over state-sponsored torture by the Assad regime opened in Germany.

The two defendants are being tried on the principle of universal jurisdiction, which allows a foreign country to prosecute crimes against humanity.

Germany has taken in more than 700,000 Syrian refugees since the start of the conflict.

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