54 docs probed in patient death

(ANSA) - Bari, September 21 - Bari prosecutors have opened a wrongful death probe into 54 surgeons and anesthesiologists after a 24-year-old man died following eight surgeries in two months.
    The patient had gone to the emergency room on July 16 and 17, where he was prescribed pain killers and released both times after being diagnosed with renal colic, a type of abdominal pain commonly caused by kidney stones.
    He returned to the emergency room a third time on July 20.
    This time he was hospitalized in his native town of Altamura, in Bari province, where doctors removed a cyst.
    His condition deteriorated, and the following day he was placed in intensive care and operated on twice: once for the removal of part of his intestine, then for the removal of his spleen, which was necrotic.
    Necrosis is the premature death of cells in living tissue, and can lead to decomposition and gangreen if left untreated.
    The patient was then transferred to Bari's Policlinico hospital, where he underwent five more surgeries.
    He died on September 14.
    Prosecutors are investigating 30 suspects at the Altamura hospital and 24 at the Bari Policlinico.