A medic in Germany who claimed he worked 60 hours a week examining 50,000 samples a year has been jailed for more than seven years after a cancer patient died because he failed to give him a correct diagnosis.

The pathologist, identified only as Dr Thomas H., 64, from the town of St. Ingbert, Saarland State, Germany, was sentenced to seven years and six months behind bars on Tuesday, 28th March.

Thomas H. was found guilty of manslaughter and negligent bodily harm by the Saarbrucken District Court after a catalogue of errors including ruling out skin cancer for two patients in 2019, one of whom later died.

German media revealed that at the time, the doctor had examined the patients’ tissue samples, but concluded they were healthy, after which they did not undergo further treatment.

But one of the men aged 67, died a year later, with follow-up examinations revealing that cancer had metastasised through his whole body.

In the case of the second patient, aged 45, however, Thomas H. had only managed to detect the disease after the man came in for a second check following severe skin changes in 2020.

The 45-year-old man’s condition has significantly worsened ever since media revealed.

In addition, Thomas H. also misdiagnosed a woman, aged 59, with a malignant mouth tumour after which her palate was removed at the Mainz University Hospital in 2018.

Another 55-year-old patient died of organ failure after the 64-year-old doctor diagnosed him with intestine cancer and put him through an unneeded surgery.

Moreover, because of another misdiagnosis, a woman aged 50 was left unable to work for nearly two years after she had her mammary glands removed.

Finally, in the case of a 34-year-old woman, the doctor overlooked a precursor to lymph gland cancer and was ordered to pay her compensation costs of EUR 40,000 (GBP 35,000) in January 2021.

When questioned, the pathologist attempted to defend his actions by claiming he had addiction issues and was going through depression at the time.

Claiming that he worked more than 60 hours per week and was examining more than 50,000 tissue samples on a yearly basis, he said: “Too much for just one person in the long run.”

He reportedly accepted the judge’s verdict without protest.

Reports revealed that this is not the pathologist’s first prison sentence, as he was jailed for two years and nine months after he made EUR 1.9 million (GBP 1.6 million) through fraud and bribery in 2020.