Doctor jailed for removing organs while using lemon juice antiseptic

A doctor who used lemon juice to disinfect his patients’ operation wounds and removed healthy organs was sentenced to four years in a minimum security facility followed by a four-year ban on practising medicine, a Mönchengladbach court said Monday.In one of the more notorious medical scandals in recent years, the court pronounced the 54-year-old owner and head doctor of a private clinic guilty guilty on two counts of negligent homicide and 21 counts of bodily harm.

Arnold Pier, who confessed to his crimes after one-and-a-half years at trial, “removed organs that should not have been removed,” head Judge Lothar Beckers said.

He surgically removed appendixes, a gallbladder and a kidney without medical cause or permission from patients, the court said. In another case a woman died because he broke off treatment, while another was subjected to unnecessary chemotherapy.

Another incident involved a man who had accidentally sawed his thumbs off. Instead of immediately sending the patient to a specialist, Pier simply sewed his thumbs back on, an action an expert described for the court as “waiting on a wonder.”

The thumbs rotted and had to be amputated.

“How he imagined he could simply sew the thumbs back on is hard to grasp,” Beckers said.

A total of four patients did not survive his treatment, which the court said was akin to “flying blind.”

In 2006 Pier purchased the bankrupt Antonius Klinik in Wegberg for €25,000 with the intention of restructuring operations there. But Pier did not know his limits and overestimated his abilities, the court said, assuring victims and their families that chances he would ever practice medicine again were slim.

via Doctor jailed for removing organs while using lemon juice antiseptic - The Local.