A doctor and a nurse whose mistake led to the amputation of a child's arm have been sentenced to one year in prison in the southern Russian city of Krasnodar.
It took the court almost six months to arrive at the final verdict, which was that Sofia Kulivets lost her right arm because of medical mistakes at the local hospital. 50-year-old doctor Vladimir Pelipenko and 36-year-old nurse Elena Senicheva were found guilty of professional negligence which caused grievous harm. The final words of both defendants in court expressed hope their names would be cleared and, also, that they sympathised with the plight of Sofia and her parents. “Naturally, I didn’t get any satisfaction. I can never be satisfied even if all of them serve life-long terms in prison,” Viktor Kulevits, Sofia’s father said. But the doctor's lawyer said that he is going to appeal against the decision. In December 2006, two-month-old Sofia Kulivets was hospitalised with whooping cough. After the baby was catheterized, the medics failed to monitor the infant properly, which led to complications. Finally, the baby's arm and shoulder joint had to be amputated. The parents were not allowed contact with their child during the treatment. Sofia still hasn't taken her first steps, yet she is already a disabled person. Recently the girl was examined at Moscow's Prosthesis Scientific Institute. The doctors said in five to seven years, when she grows up, Sofia will undergo surgery on her shoulder and get her first ever artificial arm.