Spanish anesthetist jailed for 2,000 years

An anesthetist with hepatitis C was sentenced to nearly 2,000 years in jail for infecting 275 of his patients. He used morphine meant for patients and then injected the rests into them.

Juan Maeso, 65, was sentenced to 1,933 years in prison in the sentence handed by the Valencia Provincial Court. The most he can serve under Spanish law is 20 years.

Maeso, who was addicted to morphine, worked in four Valencia-area hospitals when he is alleged to have infected people from 1988 to 1997. Four of those infected died. The trial began in Sept. 2005.

The court also ordered him to pay EUR500,000 ($680,000) in damages to each of the victims or their survivors.