The Assouta Medical Center in Tel Aviv and four of its employees were indicted Tuesday for their involvement in the death of a four-year-old patient in 2005.

The hospital, the optical surgeon and the head of the anesthesiology department were all charged with negligent manslaughter. Anesthesiologist Svetlana Rosso-Lupo was charged with aggravated manslaughter.

Neta-li Borovsky was hospitalized on June 2, 2005 for a simple procedure to correct her vision. According to the charges, the anesthesiologist Rosso-Lupo administered a high dose of the anesthesia drug. The anesthesiologist was supposed to reduce the dosage a few minutes later, but instead she turned down the volume of Borovsky's vital signs monitor and fell asleep.

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37 minutes after the operation began, Borovsky's heart stopped due to a lethal dose of anesthesia. Rosso-Lupo never woke up, and the surgeon did not notice that anything was wrong and continued to operate.

A long time elapsed before one of the nurses noticed the visual distress signals on the girl's monitor and realized that the patient's heart had stopped. The nurse immediately woke Rosso-Lupo up, but instead of commencing resuscitation efforts, Rosso-Lupo spent two minutes checking if the monitor was properly fastened.

The doctors were eventually able to get Borovsky's heart to beat, but by then the damage caused to her brain was irreversible.

Borovsky's death was pronounced four days later, and her organs were donated.

According to the prosecution, the hospital had skimped on materials and man hours, thus indirectly causing the death of the girl. In addition, hospital officials were aware of the anesthesiologist's problematic behavior, and yet did nothing about it.

The surgeon, Dr. Haim Stolovitch, is charged with negligent manslaughter for allowing Rosso-Lupo to turn the volume down on the monitor, and for failing to make sure that she was alert. He is also charged with failing begin resuscitation in time.

The head of the anesthesiology department, Adrian Michailka, is charged with allowing the Rosso-Lupo to perform operations despite her known tendency to fall asleep during procedures. The department is also charged with imposing such a heavy work load on its employees that they might fall asleep on the job.