TRIBUNAL SAYS DUTCH MEDICAL CONFIDENTIALITY
LAW PREVENTED THEM FROM TELLING MILOSEVIC THE DISTURBING RESULTS OF HIS OWN
BLOOD TESTS
www.slobodan-milosevic.org - May 31, 2006
Written by: Andy Wilcoxson
According to The Hague Tribunal, Dutch law
prohibits physicians from telling their patients the results of their own blood
tests. At least that is the Hague Tribunal's excuse for withholding vital
medical information from Slobodan Milosevic shortly before his death.
In an attempt to absolve itself of responsibility for Slobodan Milosevic's
death, the Hague Tribunal issued a report last Wednesday entitled "Report to the
President; Death of Slobodan Milosevic". The report was written by Kevin Parker,
the Vice-President of the ICTY.
Milosevic's supporters have speculated that Milosevic was murdered by poisoning,
while the Tribunal's supporters have speculated that he committed suicide.
According to the Hague report, neither of these theories is correct. According
to the Autopsy carried out by Dutch authorities, "The toxicological
investigation showed no toxicologically identified factors which could induce a
heart attack. Therefore, no (additional) factors were found which would explain
why the heart attack occurred precisely when it did." The conclusion was that
"Slobodan Milosevic, aged 64, appeared to have had severe anomalies of the
cardiac muscle and coronary arteries, which resulted in a heart attack. This
heart attack fully explains the death."
The Hague report says that "no poisons [were] found in Mr. Milosevic’s body,
[but] that a number of medicines, which had been prescribed for Mr. Milosevc had
been found, but not in toxic concentrations, and that no traces of rifampicin
had been found after the autopsy."
In spite of the fact that nothing was found in his body other than his
prescribed medicine, and in spite of the fact that the autopsy concluded that he
died because of "severe anomalies of the cardiac muscle and coronary arteries",
the Hague report spends a lot of time dwelling on allegations that Milosevic was
not taking his prescribed medicine, or that he was taking medicines not
prescribed. Such allegations can only be viewed as red herring intended distract
the reader from more crucial questions, as they have no bearing on Milosevic's
death.
The most pressing question is whether Milosevic could have been saved if the
Tribunal had allowed him to receive heart surgery in Moscow. According to his
Russian physician the answer is yes.
The Hague report quotes Prof. Leo Bockeria, the Head and Chairman of the
Bakoulev Centre for Cardiovascular Surgery in Moscow, as saying, "the patient
died because of myocardial infarction due to narrowing of the LAD [left
descending artery] and muscular bridge over that vessel. He could be treated
easily at any place of the world either by minimally invasive surgery on the
beating heart or by angioplasty and stenting."
In fact, in Paragraph 65 of The Hague Report, the Tribunal admits that heart
surgery at the Bakoulev Centre was proposed by a group of five doctors retained
by Milosevic as far back as December 2005.
However, the Tribunal attempts to avoid responsibility for Milosevic's death by
relying on opinions offered by Dr. Leclercq from France, and a Dr. Tavernier
from Belgium.
Dr Tavernier expressed the view that "there is no test that if carried out would
have helped detect or prevent the cause of death. When you have a heart
hypertrophy and a high blood pressure you have to change your life-style and
take your medications. Having taken additional tests would not have resulted in
new recommendations or changing the prescribed medications.”
The Hague Report quotes Leclercq as saying, "unfortunately, the possibilities of
preventive treatment are almost nil.”
It must be noted that Tavernier and Leclercq are offering these opinions at the
request of the Tribunal AFTER Milosevic's death.
The fact that a group of five expert doctors recommended surgery at the Bakoulev
Centre as far back as December 2005 stands unopposed in The Hague Tribunal's
report. It is also an uncontested fact that the Trial Chamber denied Milosevic's
request to to receive medical treatment in Moscow. Finally, it is not contested
that the Russian physician who would performed the surgery has claimed that
it would have saved Milosevic's life.
Not withstanding the opinions of Leclercq and Tavernier, it is clear that
Milosevic died because the Tribunal would not let him have the medical treatment
that he needed.
Another disturbing aspect of the Hague Tribunal's report deals with the presence
of rifampicin in Milosevic's blood. According to the report, Milosevic was given
a blood test on January 12, 2006 by Dr. Falke, and rifampicin was found.
Rifampicin was not prescribed to Milosevic, and it would have had the effect of
blocking medicines that he was taking to keep his blood pressure under control.
The Hague Report claims that Milosevic was not told the results of the blood
test until March 3, 2006. However, in Milosevic's letter to the Russian Foreign
Ministry he says that he was not informed until March 7th. At any rate,
paragraph 76 of the Hague Report literally says, "Mr. Milosevic was not told of
the results until 3 March 2006 because of the difficult legal position in which
Dr Falke found himself by virtue of the Dutch legal provisions concerning
medical confidentiality."
I found it difficult to believe that Dutch law prohibits a doctor from telling
his patient the results of their own blood test, so I checked with a Dutch
lawyer and a Dutch physician. They both told me that there is absolutely no
provision in Dutch law that prohibits a doctor from telling a patient the
results of his own blood test.
The original question still stands, why wasn't Milosevic told the results of his
blood test in a timely fashion? The Hague report only adds the additional
question; why is the tribunal lying to cover-up the answer?
Hague Tribunal Report available at: http://www.un.org/icty/milosevic/parkerreport.pdf