The death of 30-year-old Izabela from Pszczyna in 2021 sparked an anti-government hysteria among the then-parliamentary opposition and groups associated with the so-called Women’s Strike movement. The incident was accompanied by accusations related to the Constitutional Tribunal’s ruling that declared the so-called eugenic grounds for abortion unconstitutional. Today, verdicts were issued in the case concerning her death. The District Court in Pszczyna found three doctors guilty-two of them were sentenced to prison without parole.
Prosecutors charged doctors Andrzej P., Krzysztof P., and Michał M. with endangering Izabela’s life, and charged the first of them additionally with involuntary manslaughter. The deceased woman’s family believes the doctors delayed terminating the pregnancy for too long, which contributed to the 30-year-old’s death. Izabela died in 2021 at the hospital in Pszczyna due to septic shock.
Thursday’s verdict is not final and may be appealed
The court sentenced Andrzej P. to one year and six months of unconditional imprisonment and banned him from practicing medicine for six years, for exposing Izabela to an immediate risk of losing her life-risk that was causally linked to her involuntary death.
The court also found Krzysztof P., the deputy head of the Gynecology and Obstetrics Department (who was substituting for the department head at the time), guilty of exposing the patient to an immediate danger to life, while being legally responsible for her care. He received a one-year suspended prison sentence (suspended for two years), a fine, a four-year ban from practicing medicine, and was ordered to issue a formal apology.
Michał M.-an obstetrician-gynecologist on the morning shift in the emergency room of the Pszczyna hospital-was also found guilty of the same offense. He was sentenced to one year and three months of unconditional imprisonment, and was banned from practicing medicine for six years.
The sentence announced on Thursday was public, but the court excluded the public from the oral reasoning of the verdict.