An Indian-origin doctor, who injected an intensive care patient with a drug against the advice of senior medical staff, has been convicted of manslaughter and given a six-month suspended jail sentence in London.
Priya Ramnath, 40, who worked in Britain's National Health Service, injected Patricia Leighton, with adrenaline in the Stafford District General Hospital in July 1998.
Ramnath, who now lives in the US, was convicted of the patient's murder and handed the suspended jail sentence at the Birmingham Brown Court for going against the wishes of three colleagues and failing to speak to a consultant anaesthetist at the hospital before injecting the drug into Leighton.
The doctor came back from the US last February to face the charge after being threatened with extradition. The jury found her guilty by a 10-2 majority while Ramnath denied manslaughter by gross negligence.
Leighton died from heart failure shortly after she was injected with the drug. The prosecuting lawyer, Michael Burrows, told the trial that she was being treated in an intensive therapy unit in the early hours of the morning.
He said within moments of the injection Leighton jerked forward in her bed and exclaimed: "What's happening to me? I am going to die."
She lost consciousness shortly afterwards.
"The jury has found that Mrs Leighton would have lived longer, perhaps days, but for your gross negligence," the verdict said.
