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From Jahresbericht Medizinischer Dienst: Mehr Todesfälle durch Behandlungsfehler, tagesschau.de, 20 August 2026. Quoted for study. The words are the publisher's; the analysis is ours.
Meaning
In almost 3,100 cases, health damage that had occurred was confirmed - that is, in about one in four cases.
Word for word: In nearly 3,100 cases were occurred health damages confirmed - so in about every fourth case.
Reports that health damage was officially confirmed in nearly 3,100 cases, roughly a quarter of all cases; typical of news or report language.
A passive-voice main clause (wurden ... bestätigt) with a fronted prepositional phrase, an extended participial phrase modifying Schäden, and an appositive explanatory clause introduced by also.
Rules at work(8)
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wurden ... bestätigt
The agent is unimportant; the focus is on the confirmed cases, so the werden-passive in the preterite is used.
Werden plus a past participle. The agent, when it is mentioned at all, follows von for a person and durch for a means. In the perfect passive the participle of werden appears as worden rather than geworden.
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entstandene gesundheitliche Schäden
The past participle entstandene modifies the noun attributively like an adjective.
Both participles can stand before a noun and take ordinary adjective endings. The past participle is passive in sense, the present participle active: das gekochte Ei against das kochende Wasser.
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wurden
Written reports prefer the preterite of werden to form the passive instead of the perfect.
The simple past is the written narrative past. In speech it survives mainly in sein, haben and the modals, where hatte and war are far commoner than the perfect forms.
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entstandene gesundheitliche Schäden
The participle stands directly before the noun with an intervening adjective, forming a compact modifier phrase typical of formal German.
Formal written German can expand a participle before a noun into a long phrase standing between the article and the noun, where English would use a relative clause after it.
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In Fällen
'in' expresses location within a set of cases here, requiring the dative plural Fällen.
The dative marks the indirect object, usually the person something is given, said or shown to. A number of common verbs take a dative object where English would use a direct one, and several prepositions always take it.
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in Fällen
'in' governs dative for static location and accusative for motion; here it is dative.
An, auf, hinter, in, neben, über, unter, vor and zwischen take the accusative when the phrase answers where to, and the dative when it answers where. The distinction is movement across a boundary against position, not motion against stillness.
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jedem vierten Fall
The ordinal viert- is declined like an adjective after the determiner jedem.
Ordinals are formed with t up to nineteen and st from twenty, and they take adjective endings. Written as digits they are followed by a full stop, so der 3. Mai.
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Schäden wurden
The plural subject Schäden agrees with the plural finite verb form wurden.
The finite verb takes an ending that matches its subject in person and number. The endings for regular verbs in the present are e, st, t, en, t, en.
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Words(12)
- in
in, into
prepositionA1governs accusative or dative
Dative for location, accusative for direction.
- knapp
tight, barely, scarce, just under
adjectiveB1
Often adverbial: 'knapp drin' = just barely in.
- 3.100
3,100
numeralA2
- der Fall
case, instance, fall
nounB1pl. Fällegen. Fallesstrong declension
im Fall + genitive means 'in the event of'.
- werden
become, will (future auxiliary)
verbA2werden, wurde, ist gewordenmit habenirregular
Also the passive auxiliary; do not confuse with bekommen (= receive).
- gesundheitlich
health-related, health
adjectiveB2
- der Schaden
damage, harm, loss
nounB1pl. Schädengen. Schadensstrong declension
- bestätigen
to confirm
verbB1bestätigen, bestätigte, hat bestätigtmit habenweakgoverns accusative
- also
so, that is, thus
adverbA2modal
Here used to introduce a paraphrase: 'that is to say'.
- etwa
for example, roughly, perhaps
adverbB2modal
'Etwa' can mean 'approximately', 'perhaps', or here 'for example'; context decides.
- jeder
every, each
determinerA2quantifier
- viert
fourth
adjectiveA2