Sarishvili-Bolkvadze v. Georgia

Information Note on the Court’s case-law 220July 2018Sarishvili-Bolkvadze v. Georgia - 58240/08Judgment 19.7.2018 [Section V]Article 2Positive obligationsInefficiency of regulatory framework to protect patients’ lives and absence of statutory remedy for non-pecuniary damage resulting from death caused by medical negligence: violationsFacts – In 2004 the applicant’s son, admitted to intensive care with traumatic injury, died in a hospital a month later. A panel of experts found that a medical error had been committed during his treatment. The applicant refusing to allow an autopsy and, later, an exhumation resulted in the criminal investigation being terminated in 2008, as the prosecuting authority was unable to establish a causal link between the alleged medical negligence and the death of her son. In the meantime, the civil courts concluded that his death had been caused by medical negl …