LONDON - Professor Edward Austoni, former head of urology and andrology St. Joseph Hospital in Milan, was sentenced to six years and six months by the judges of the Fourth Chamber of the Court of Milan. "It's a very sad page of justice," was the comment of the doctor. The accusation of extortion, attempted extortion and abuse of office: the former head asks for money to patients - a reported sixty cases - in exchange for faster waiting lists for operations under the service NHS. The prosecutor had requested a sentence of 12 years. was sentenced to two years and his secretary, Maria Luisa Simonini (the prosecution had asked for four). Edward Austoni was also sentenced to 5 years of ban by the medical profession, but the ban has been condoned and is not enforceable. "I will continue to work - announces the luminary - and to teach at the university." The ambush
- The former head was also the victim of an attack on the evening of 29 November 2006. Ten shots were fired at him while aboard his black Porsche Carrera, was coming out in reverse Dezza the front door of the clinic where he visited every afternoon. Three shots went to sign, the legs (a fractured femur) and arms. The person responsible for the attack has not yet been identified. Own investigations related to this story of the ambush showed the money to be made immediately, which gave rise to the process for extortion. Austoni today recalled the incident: "I am Sicilian and Pradella know what are my ideas about the identity of the person who made that attack, it is they who should find answers to that fact. My life has always been very clear. The only thing I know for certain is that there has been a patient of mine. "
ACCUSATIONS - The Sicilian pm, entry in his request for sentence, he pointed out that patients' had no chance to avoid the undue demands. Their intention was compressed. Self-determination could not because the object of the doctor-patient relationship is the life or health. And health is a non-negotiable. " Surveys, for the prosecution showed a "painful picture." While Austoni was a "towering figure" patients "are subject helpless, unable to defend the respect for authority which they have to obey."
DEFENCE OF MEDICAL - completely opposite to the picture painted by Austoni, commented bitterly that his sentence. "I I was getting to patients and will encourage them in their best interest, my conscience led me to look at their interest, "defended himself and the former urologist urologist. "The court did not take into account the comments made by my lawyers, and based on case law, there can be no concussion in a private facility." The concussion, Austoni continued, "there when you doctor in a public structure will force the patient to take it private, but in my case we went from private to public in the interest of the patient." Asked if he would behave the same way, going back in time, Austoni replies: "I have always acted conscientiously and in the interest to follow and to help patients. Witnesses have spoken of this process in my professionaltà and sensitivity. This is only the first stage of a trial are innocent until a final ruling. "
March 12, 2009
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