Judge clears physician charged with murder
The Lake County, CA, trial of an emergency department physician charged with murdering an infant patient ended abruptly in February after a judge ruled that the prose cu tion failed to show the physician acted criminally.
Wolfgang Schug, MD, an emergency department physician at a rural hospital north of San Francisco, was charged with second-degree murder, involuntary manslaughter, and child endangerment. The 11-month-old infant, who had been seen in the emergency department three times in a 48-hour period for vomiting and diarrhea, died in 1996.
Child sent to another hospital
Prosecutors charged the physician with murder and alleged that he failed to recognize the infant's lethal condition. After realizing the error, the prosecution argued, the physician sent the child by private car to another hospital in an attempt to avoid responsibility.
The infant was brain-dead when he arrived at the second hospital, which was 55 miles away. Both state and national medical associations watched the case closely and oppose the prosecution of physicians for medical judgments.
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