The doctor Artur Carvalho, responsible for carrying out three ultrasounds on a pregnant woman from Setúbal in which he was unable to identify the serious malformations that the baby had, was expelled from the profession and is formally prohibited from practicing as of this Wednesday, March 1 .
The decision was made public by the Higher Council of the Order of Doctors (CSOM) and puts into effect the deliberation of this body, of 29 November last year, which, in turn, carried out what had already been determined by the Southern Regional Disciplinary Council more a year earlier, on November 23, 2021.
According to the public notice in which the expulsion of Artur Carvalho is publicized, the CSOM indicates that the doctor is “punished with the disciplinary sanction of expulsion”, for “violation of deontological duties”, being “definitely prohibited from practicing any medical professional act from of March 1, 2023”.
Artur Carvalho had carried out at least three ultrasound scans at the private clinic Ecosado on the mother of a baby who would be born on October 7, 2019 at the Hospital de Setúbal, with serious malformations on the head and face. The woman said that she was always told by the doctor that everything was normal with the baby, who would eventually be born without a nose, eyes and a part of the skull.
Following the disclosure of this case, the Order of Doctors revealed that the obstetrician had already been the subject of several other complaints, some of which dated back to 2011 and which were investigated by the Public Ministry, without any conviction being known.
In the case that now led to the expulsion of the doctor, the Public Prosecutor’s Office closed the investigation, considering that the malformation of the fetus “did not result from an error, omission or negligence on the part of the doctor”, although it considered that Artur Carvalho “violated rules and norms to which he was subject. bound [legis artis]”.
The obstetrician was suspended from his duties for six months, after a lawsuit was opened at the Medical Association, but this preventive suspension ended in April 2020. After that, however, according to what was made public, the obstetrician, by his own decision , did not practice the profession again and, however, retired. Now he is definitely prohibited from performing any medical act.