Juan Maeso, a Spanish anaesthetist and convicted criminal, died on March 30, 2026.
He was sentenced to 1,933 years in prison for infecting hundreds of patients with hepatitis C after using the same needles to give both himself and patients opioids. According to the case summary, he infected 275 people between 1988 and 1997.
Under Spanish law, the maximum sentence he could serve was 20 years. He was ordered to pay 500,000 euros to each victim or their survivors, and was released from prison in 2023 after 15 years of imprisonment because of his medical condition.
Juan Maeso Vélez (1942 – 31 March 2026) was a Spanish anaesthetist who was sentenced to 1,933 years in prison for infecting hundreds of patients with hepatitis C, after using the same needles to give both himself and the patients opioids.