The case of Xiao Zhijun’s refusal to sign a pregnant woman’s death will be subject to medical fault judicial appraisal.
This morning, the Chaoyang District People’s Court of Beijing organized the parents of Li Liyun, the deceased, to have another talk with Beijing Chaoyang Hospital in the case of Xiao Zhijun, which attracted much attention from the society.
In response to the medical malpractice appraisal previously applied by Chaoyang Hospital, the Medical Malpractice Appraisal Office of Chaoyang District Medical Association replied: "No medical malpractice technical appraisal will be conducted for this case." In this regard, the next step of the court will be based on Li Liyun’s parents’ application for judicial appraisal of medical faults. In the morning, the judge first informed both parties of the reply made by the Medical Malpractice Appraisal Office of Chaoyang District Medical Association to the application for medical malpractice appraisal on December 2. The reporter noticed that the reply stated, "Because the Beijing Municipal Health Bureau organized the municipal expert review on maternal death on November 25th, 2007 and made some comments (see the investigation report of the Municipal Health Bureau on the death of pregnant woman Li Liyun), I will no longer conduct technical appraisal on this case.
The reporter learned that the opinion given in the "Investigation Bulletin" made by the Beijing Municipal Health Bureau indicated that experts agreed that the patient died of severe pneumonia, acute left heart failure, pulmonary edema and respiratory failure. Because the patient failed to see a doctor in time, although he was rescued, his death was inevitable. The lesson from this tragedy is that you should seek medical advice in time if you are sick. In response to Chaoyang Medical Association’s reply, Li Liyun’s parents expressed "approval". Although Chaoyang Hospital has some objections to the reply, it also accepts it. Regarding this reply, the judge said that the reply made by the Medical Malpractice Appraisal Office of Chaoyang Medical Association was not an appraisal conclusion, but this reply has made it impossible for medical malpractice appraisal to continue, so the next step will be judicial appraisal. In the morning, the court organized the two sides to choose the judicial authentication institution, but because the two sides could not reach an agreement on the selection of the authentication institution, the court said that it would report to the Beijing Higher People’s Court in accordance with legal procedures to determine the final authentication institution by random lottery. The judge said that the next step of the case will depend on the appraisal.
Event playback:
On the afternoon of November 21st, 2007, Li Liyun, who had been pregnant for 9 months, was sent to Jingxi Branch of Chaoyang Hospital for treatment by her "husband" Xiao Zhijun because of her breathing difficulties. The hospital suggested cesarean section, but Xiao Zhijun refused to sign it. That night, Li Liyun and her unborn child both died because they couldn’t perform the operation without the signature of their families.
Later, Li Liyun’s parents sued Chaoyang Hospital and Xiao Zhijun to the court, claiming more than 1.218 million yuan. However, because Xiao Zhijun’s whereabouts have never been found, in order to ensure the smooth progress of the case, Li Xuguang and his wife withdrew the prosecution against Xiao Zhijun, and Chaoyang Hospital became the only defendant in the case. The case was officially filed in Beijing Chaoyang Court in February this year.
During the trial, Li Liyun’s parents and Chaoyang Hospital jointly chose Beijing Mingzheng Judicial Appraisal Center to identify the cause of Li Liyun’s death, whether the fetus was full-term and whether there was any poison in Li Liyun’s abdomen. On March 11th, the appraisal center accepted the appraisal and issued a forensic appraisal at the end of April. The appraisal conclusion was "Li Liyun suffered from bilateral diffuse bronchitis complicated with lobular pneumonia in the third trimester of pregnancy, followed by severe pulmonary edema and acute respiratory distress syndrome, and eventually died of respiratory and circulatory failure; Forensic medicine infers that the fetal gestational age is about 36 weeks; No tetramine was detected in Li Liyun. ".
After the appraisal conclusion was made, because Li Liyun’s parents disagreed with the appraisal result, the judge organized both parties to watch the video of autopsy in the appraisal institution. At the same time, the judge informed and repeatedly persuaded the plaintiff to cremate the patient’s body as soon as possible, on the one hand, exempting the burden of high mortuary fees every day, on the other hand, allowing the deceased to be buried as soon as possible. At the same time, considering the financial difficulties of Li Liyun’s parents, the judge made Chaoyang Hospital pay part of the mortuary expenses.
After the cause of death is found out, the trial of the case needs to identify whether there is a medical fault in Chaoyang Hospital and whether its diagnosis and treatment behavior constitutes a medical accident, so as to determine whether the hospital should bear the responsibility for the patient’s death result and the proportion of responsibility. In this regard, out of distrust of the Medical Association, Li Liyun’s parents insisted on the judicial appraisal of medical faults by judicial appraisal institutions, while Chaoyang Hospital insisted on the technical appraisal of medical accidents by the Medical Association. According to reports, according to the current regulations, when the two sides disagree on this, the medical malpractice technical appraisal should be carried out first. If the appraisal result does not constitute a medical accident, the patient can apply for the medical malpractice appraisal of the judicial appraisal institution again. In the meantime, Li Liyun’s parents and Chaoyang Hospital insisted on their own appraisal application, and they did not compromise with each other. In the case of ineffective coordination for many times, the court decided to entrust the medical association to conduct medical malpractice appraisal first according to the current regulations.
Editor: Li Xian