The court of criminal appeal of Ancona recognized the criminal responsibility of Dr. Massimiliano Mecozzi, a homeopathic doctor accused of causing the death of little Francesco Bonifazi.
History
The story dates back to May 2017 when the 7-year-old boy was treated by a Pesaro doctor for an ear infection with homeopathic treatments. However, the illness dragged on for over 20 days, worsening to the point of causing his death due to brain abscess.. During the evolution of the disease, according to the reconstruction of the Prosecutor's Office, the doctor advised the victim's family to treat their son with homeopathic products, dissuading them from using antibiotics and to resort to hospital treatment, which the parents turned to once they saw the worsening of the conditions of little Francesco.
Conviction at first instance
The Court of Ancona condemned the doctor for gross negligenceconsisting of not having followed the medical protocols dictated by the Ministry of Health which impose, when faced with an ear infection in a minor, watchful waiting in the first 3 days during which it is also possible to prescribe homeopathic treatments, but once the condition has worsened patient clinic oblige the doctor to prescribe an adequate antibiotic treatment.
The causal link
Mecozzi had appealed the sentence, believing that the preliminary investigation of the first instance judgment had not proven the causal link between the child's death and the ear infection. The intervention of the National Consumers Union was decisive, sponsored by the lawyer Corrado Canafoglia, assisted by professors Enrico Bucci and Matteo Bassetti, who produced documentation from which it emerged that the case of little Francesco was not isolated, but rather only the last of similar precedents where patients turned away and/or refused traditional medicine to follow the instructions of homeopathic doctors and this choice resulted in the death of the patients.
The appeal sentence
The Court of Appeal of Ancona, today chaired by Antonella Di Carlo, confirmed the conviction of the Court, rejecting the appeal and accepting the thesis of the Public Prosecutor's Office on the medical responsibility of Dr. Mecozzi, supported by the child's family and by the National Consumers Union which technically supported the accusatory thesis in the trial. “Today's ruling is confirmation that when faced with illnesses we must resort to traditional medicine to avoid their worsening to the point of death. The National Consumers Union has been carrying out intense activity for years aimed at combating practices that interfere with health and they distance themselves from the medical protocols dictated by the Ministry of Health”, comments the lawyer Corrado Canafoglia, lawyer for the National Consumers Union.
“This sentence is an important piece in ascertaining the truth of an extremely serious fact that has affected an entire family” concludes the lawyer Federica Mancinelli, lawyer of little Francesco's grandfather, Maurizio Bonifazi, who, moved by reading the sentence, he said: “Today I will be able to visit my nephew at the cemetery with the serenity in my heart that justice is taking its course.”
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