HÒA BÌNH — The relatives of nine victims who died in a medical incident at the Hòa Bình General Hospital last year asked a court on Monday to acquit one of the defendants in the case.

Hoàng Công Lương, a doctor at the Department of Intensive Care of the Hòa Bình General Hospital and a resident of Hòa Bình City, was a devoted doctor who treated his patients for years and tried his best to save the patients when the accident occurred, the victims’ families told the court.

According to them, Lương was just a doctor and was not in charge of the quality of machines and equipment.

Aside from Lương, the other defendants include Bùi Mạnh Quốc, director of the Trâm Anh Water Treatment Co. Ltd., and Trần Văn Sơn, an official of the medical material and equipment division of the Hòa Bình General Hospital.

On May 29, 2017, 18 patients suffered from symptoms of anaphylactic shock, such as difficulty in breathing, sudden fall in blood pressure, stomachache, and vomiting while receiving kidney dialysis at the kidney dialysis division of the hospital’s Department of Intensive Care. Nine of the patients died in this incident.

According to the indictment of the provincial People’s Procuracy, Quốc, 32, had repaired and maintained the RO filter system of the dialysis machines. During the process, however, the machines’ water supply tubes were not purified carefully, chemical residue was found to the cause.

After the pasteurisation of the RO filter system, Quốc failed to check the quality of water samples before handing the system over to the hospital. He was charged with involuntary manslaughter Sơn, 28, who was in charge of checking and supervising the replacement and maintenance of the filter system, failed to complete his assigned tasks. Nephrologist Lương, 32, allowed the dialysis treatment to commence without checking the water quality of the machines. Sơn and Lương were charged with “negligence resulting in serious consequences.”

The victims’ families also asked the court to consider mitigating factors on the cases of Sơn and Quốc.

The families of Sơn and Quốc paid VNĐ50 million (US$2,200) and VNĐ30 million (US$1,200), respectively, as compensation to the victims’ relatives during the investigation.

Meanwhile, the Hòa Bình Hospital and Thiên Sơn Company, which provided materials for the repair of the Reverse Osmosis (RO) water filter system, paid VNĐ740 million (US$32,500) to compensate the victims’ families. — VNS