Costa Tropical
Granada parents claim medical negligence after baby dies of Swine Flu virus
By m.p. - Nov 4, 2009 - 1:58 PM
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They say they were sent home after their first visit to the hospital and told to administer paracetamol
The parents of a baby who fell victim to the A flu in Granada have accused the paediatrician who attended her at the city’s Maternity Hospital of negligence in failing to detect the virus in time to save her life. It was confirmed last Saturday in a telephone call from the hospital that the cause of death was the H1N1 virus.
The parents had taken their 10 month old baby, Sheila, to paediatrics emergency last Thursday after Paracetamol had failed to bring down the high fever she had been suffering for more than 24 hours. They had previously found there to be no paediatrician on duty at their local health centre in Albolote that day.
They told Ideal newspaper that, despite their concerns over the child’s history of the rare epileptic disorder West syndrome, they were given instructions at the hospital to continue with the same medication, as well as medicine to help his breathing. The paediatrician is understood to have diagnosed a probable seasonal virus, telling the couple to return if the baby’s condition had not improved within the next 24 hours.
They returned that afternoon when her condition worsened, but the baby died in Intensive Care later that night after failed attempts to intubate her to open her airway.
The grieving parents, José Manuel Cortés González and Carolina Ribes Sánchez, have now contracted the services of a lawyer to claim liability for their daughter’s death.