A DOCTOR charged with the manslaughter of a patient was ‘more sinned against than sinner’, according to the expert prosecution witness.
Dolores Moyano Ontiveros is accused of causing the death of staff nurse Elizabeth Rourke during a routine operation in 2006. Under cross-examination in the Assize trial being heard in the Royal Court, Professor Patrick Forbes confirmed to Defence Advocate Michael O’Connell that he had used the sympathetic phrase to describe Dr Moyano after she was left in a ‘very difficult position’.
Prof Forbes, a consultant obstetrician and gynaecologist with 21 years’ experience as a consultant in the UK, said: ‘I have no malice or adverse thoughts about her. I felt she was more sinned against than sinner in this case because she was put into a position that led to the events which unfolded. I do feel sorry for your client.’
It was the fourth day of the trial of Dr Moyano, who performed the unsupervised routine operation, a hysteroscopy, on Mrs Rourke after consultant gynaecologist John Day left the Hospital. Mrs Rourke died the same day on 17 October 2006 after suffering catastrophic internal bleeding. The trial is expected to last between four and six weeks.
The operation took place at the Hospital in October 2006
