Bernese surgeon accused of immature implants

The public prosecutor of Bern has reported serious bodily harm against a surgeon from Bern. She accuses him of using immature intervertebral disc implants on several patients. The doctor denies the allegations.

“Das Magazin” of the Tamedia media first reported on the accusation on Saturday. The indictment is also available for inspection at the Keystone-SDA news agency.

The case was made public in 2018 by an international investigative team with the cooperation of Tamedia. The Bernese surgeon is said to have scientifically supervised the development of an intervertebral disc implant and used the product himself on seven patients between 2011 and 2013.

In February 2019, the public prosecutor of Bern opened an investigation. Now the case is going to court. According to the indictment, the responsible prosecutor accuses the surgeon of causing the artificial disc to fail in all seven patients, causing physical damage to the spine.

In the “Magazine”, the surgeon’s lawyer denied the allegations. Your client has acted “legally and professionally” in connection with the case.

In December 2018, the surgeon explained on Swiss television SRF that during the follow-up checks he had never noticed anything that should not. In cases discovered elsewhere in Europe, the product was probably not used correctly.

The prosthesis was sold by the now-defunct British company Ranier. The Bernese surgeon was involved in the development of the product. Animal tests allegedly showed shortcomings, according to the complaint. Nevertheless, the product came on the market in 2010.

Serious complications were reported to have occurred in dozens of patients across Europe. In 2014, Ranier took the implant off the market. The company went bankrupt. It is not yet known when the trial against the 75-year-old surgeon from Bern will start. (sda)