In 75 cities around Mexico, including Guadalajara, doctors came together to protest the arrest of two doctors in Oaxaca, who were detained last week after a boy in their care died following surgery for a broken elbow last November.
According to Oaxaca’s Attorney General’s Office, orthopedic surgeon Luis Alberto Perez and anesthesiologist Gabriela Cruz Lopez didn’t take proper precautions when treating Edward Luna. In addition, the numbing agent lidocaine, a local anesthetic, was found in the boy’s blood stream following a forensics examination, something not mentioned in the medical report filed by Perez.
Following the detainment of Perez (the anesthesiologist yet enjoys her freedom after filing an amparo), a group of Tapatio medical professionals converged on the Procuraduria General de la Republica (federal Attorney General’s Office) on Avenida 16 de Septiembre to demand the decriminalization of what one – but probably not the protestors – would call negligent medical practices, as well as the immediate release of Perez.
The protests echo those of 2014, mounted in response to the arrest of 16 medical workers accused of negligence following the 2010 death of 15-year-old Roberto Gallardo at Guadalajara’s Centro Medico de Occidente hospital. The gist of both protests is that, essentially, doctors should be seen as neither gods nor murderers, neither idolized nor demonized.
The accused in November’s case could face up to 20 years in prison.