DUBAI // A physician cleared of refusing to resuscitate a patient had his acquittal upheld by the Appeals Court today.
MA, 49, from India, who worked as an ICU attending physician at Rashid Hospital, was accused along with the Austrian doctor EA, 50, of withholding treatment that led to the death of the patient Ghulam Mohammed, a quadriplegic, in February 2009.
The Criminal Court found the Austrian doctor guilty of premeditated murder, after hearing that he personally supervised the shutting down of the patient's life-support system, issued do-not-resuscitate orders to ICU staff and prompted a fatal heart attack by increasing his morphine dosage.
The Criminal Court sentenced the Austrian in absentia to life in prison, but cleared the Indian physician. Yesterday, the Appeals Court upheld this ruling.