Bulgaria Health Ministry Sentenced over Suit of Deceased Cancer Patient

Bulgaria's Health Ministry has been sentenced to pay BGN 100 000 to a deceased cancer patient. Photo by BGNES

Bulgaria’s Supreme Administrative Court has sentenced the Health Ministry to pay BGN 100 000 to a cancer patient over a wrong diagnosis and improper treatment.

However, the sentence comes about a year after the cancer patient – Vesela Vasileva – passed away, the Bulgarian National TV reported.

Vasileva had a surgery over a tumor and received metastases after that but got no treatment because her scans at the National Cancer Hospital in Sofia showed she was in remission. Thus, the failure to treat her on time proved fatal.

The trail on the suit against the Health Ministry filed by Vesela Vasileva dragged on because doctors summoned as experts by the court refused to give expert positions directed against their colleagues based on “ethical” grounds.

Four other Bulgarian cancer patients with similar suits against the Health Ministry have died while awaiting the outcome of the trials.

The first Bulgarian cancer patient to ever win a case against the Health Ministry, Teodora Zaharieva, received BGN 80 000 as she proved that the lack of a life-saving medicine which should have been provided by the Ministry led to the worsening of her condition back in 2004. Zaharieva has managed to recovered from cancer, and has founded a Center for Protecting Health Rights