A Dutch eye doctor who used to operate from a well known clinic in Lagoa has received a four year, eight month suspended jail sentence for robbing patients of their sight by using equipment that had not properly been disinfected.
Franciscus Versteeg also has to pay €15,000 in hospital treatment costs for those of his patients that later had to receive care from Portugal’s national health service after their operations at the I-Q-Med clinic went wrong.
Versteeg was not in court in Portimão for the trial or for sentencing, claiming that a lack of funds prevented him from travelling to the Algarve.
Versteeg’s assistant Reinaldo Bartolomeu was charged with exercising duties for which he was not qualified and carrying out work while not wearing gloves and putting patients at risk of infection. Bartolomeu received a suspended sentence.
Versteeg was accused of causing physical harm due to negligence during surgery in the summer of 2010.
Four of Versteeg’s patients underwent eye surgery and all later suffered serious infection resulting in partial blindness for three and total blindness for one. The four former patients were represented in court seeking compensation totalling around €200,000.
Infection was transmitted to Leopoldina Rosa, Valdelene Aparecida, Ernesto Barradas and Michael Donovan who underwent eye surgery at the clinic.
It is not yet know if and when the court will award compensation to the victims but it may be a long haul if Versteeg indeed did not have the funds to make the trip to Portugal to stand trial.
