The Council of the Cantonal Court in Sarajevo, presided over by Judge Indira Jahić, handed down a first-instance verdict to the doctors accused of concealing the death of a two-and-a-half-year-old Jane Gadjun from Bilješevo near Kakanj. The court pronounced a guilty verdict.
The defendants did not come to the sentencing.
Suad Rožajac was charged with a serious criminal offense against human health and the criminal offense of negligent treatment. Rožajac was sentenced to 10 years in prison. The maximum sentence for the crime he was charged with is 12 years.
Ophthalmologists Nina Jovanović and Jasmina Halimić-Alajbegović were charged with the criminal offense of abuse of position or authority. Jovanović was sentenced to four and a half years, and Halimić-Alajbegović to three years in prison. The maximum threatened sentence for the criminal acts for which Jovanović and Halimić-Alajbegović were charged is five years in prison.
The Prosecutor’s Office of KS stated in its closing remarks that it follows from the evidence that the anesthesiologist Rožajac, who was the head of the surgical team, was responsible for the omissions that led to the deterioration of the child’s condition and death.
According to the Prosecutor’s Office, he apparently used an inappropriate means of anesthesia, and failed to timely notice the signs of deterioration of the child’s condition because he failed to place electrodes to monitor the child’s vital parameters. All this led to hypoxia of great intensity, which resulted in the death of the child six days after the operation.
According to the prosecutor, Dr. Jovanović, in her communication with the parents, created an impression of the urgency of the operation. Jovanović also did not have a permit to work in the Canton of Sarajevo, and neither she nor Halimić had the necessary approvals to perform the procedure.
Džena Gadžun passed away on November 14, 2021 at the Clinical Center of the University of Sarajevo (KCUS), six days after the doctors were accused of her death, performing a “routine” eyelid surgery at the “Dr. Bejtović” dental office.
During the operation, there were complications and cardiac arrest, and the girl fell into a coma, from which she never woke up.
The operation was performed in the office under general anesthesia, where it should not have been performed, and the equipment used was not verified.
The indictment against the three doctors who performed the surgery was confirmed in July 2023, and the trial began at the end of the same year.
The trial was marked by numerous postponements of the hearings, and the lawyers of the accused throughout the duration of the trial used all possible procedural possibilities in order to prolong the process as much as possible.
Exemptions of prosecutors and judges were requested on several occasions, trials were also postponed due to non-appearance of the accused and their defense attorneys for various reasons, sometimes even without notifying the Court.
The incidents were not absent even in front of the Court building because the lawyers of the accused in all ways tried to prevent photojournalists and journalists from “catching” their defendants.
(TYPE/Source: Faktor.ba/Photo: Adis Spahić)
