A surgeon from the Orhei Hospital was sentenced by a district court to three years suspended after being found guilty of criminal negligence that led to the death of a patient four years ago.

In March 2015, the doctor prescribed drugs to a patient without examining him first. As a result, the man, 67, died after developing an allergic reaction later that day.

Forensic examinations ordered by the prosecutors showed that the patient died of an allergy-induced acute respiratory failure, compounded by the fact that the patient was an asthma sufferer, the Prosecutor General’s Office said in a press release.

The 44-year-old doctor, with an 18 years’ experience in the Orhei Hospital, pleaded not guilty. His sentence is appealable.