Sevilla
The patient visited ten hospitals and health centres over 13 days – finally she was admitted for 171 days, 96 in the ICU
Jan 18, 2017 - 1:19 PM
Health service condemned for not diagnosing choking on a chicken bone
The patient visited ten hospitals and health centres over 13 days – finally she was admitted for 171 days, 96 in the ICU
Jan 18, 2017 - 1:19 PM
The Andalucía Superior Court of Justice (TSJA in Spanish) has confirmed the sentence which condemned the Andalucía Health Service (SAS) to pay a compensation of 320,446.54 € to a 44 year old woman from Écija (Sevilla) for failing to diagnose a trapped chicken bone over 13 days – putting the patient ‘at serious risk and in danger of losing her life’ and now ‘she is suffering important after-effects’.
In the sentence, which Europa Press has gained access, the Fourth Section of the Administrative Contentious Hall of the TSJA in Sevilla, rejected the appeal made by the regional health authority SAS which was also claiming legal costs against the verdict issued in September 2013 by the judge in the Contentious Administrative 12 in Sevilla.
The SAS appealed alleging, among other reasons, the sentence had been in error in valuing the evidence, but the TSJA ‘coincided’ with the Judge believing their had been ‘a manifest error in diagnosis despite from the first moment the patient pointed out where she was suffering and had as a consequence developed a fever’.
A prompt diagnosis ‘would have permitted adequate and correct treatment against the infection, which would have avoided her dreadful deterioration which had put her life at risk’ noted the TSJA severely, adding ‘ damage done which could have been avoided with an adequate and urgent diagnosis’ and so we face ‘damages called medical malpractice’.
The president of the private association ‘In Defence of the Patient’ which had brought the case, Carmen Flores, angered this case ‘is a clear example of a lack of coordination and correct procedure in the administration of the SAS’, in fact the sentence notes ‘the lack of coordination between the public administrations cannot prejudice the users, and less so when this is a public health service.
The sentence now confirmed by the judge in the Contentious Administrative 12 in Sevilla put into manifest the successive errors in diagnosis ‘resulted’ that the patient ‘was left to suffer in extreme circumstances, where the death rate is over 80%’ and as the facts have proven, the patient was admitted for 171 days, 96 in the ICU
‘The lack of a prompt diagnosis had put the ill woman into a deep depression of both physical and psychological which has left a terrible aftermath for the rest of her life’, said the judge who revealed the consequences the patient had suffered, the removal of the large intestine, loss of hearing and important aesthetic deformity, retroactive depressive disorder, moral damages and ‘absolute’ incapacity to gain any employment.
According to the Defender of the Patient – the nightmare which the victim named as C.C.P began on November 19, 2007, when she choked on a chicken bone and felt the sensation of something stuck in her throat, reason enough to go the A&E department in the Écija hospital.
First diagnosis was made only ‘with a wooden tool to depress her tongue’ to look inside her mouth, and then she was sent home with the diagnosis of ‘strange pharyngeal object’, which resulted in 48 hours the woman returned to the same hospital ‘with her throat very inflamed and she reported she had choked on a chicken bone’
The health workers then carried out exactly the same procedure as two days before and sent her home with a new diagnosis of ‘acute pharyngotonsillitis’ and she was given a prescription by the outpatients doctor’, who sent her home and which resulted in no improvement.
Then the woman embarked on a pilgrimage visiting different health centres ‘ despite nobody noticing her condition was worsening’ until on December 1, 2007 after 13 days of close to strangulation, the Señora attended the district hospital in Osuna’ and collapsed at the door, leading to her being urgently evacuated by helicopter to the Virgen del Rocío Hospital in Sevilla.
Once admitted, her diagnosis was ‘disastrous’ as her oesophagus ‘was completely putrid’ given the presence of the chicken bone for ‘so many days’ and now ‘impossible to make a throat inspection as the infection had become generalised’.
The judge considered proved that ‘effectively there had been misdiagnoses and incorrect treatment in diverse health centres where the patient searched for help. In effect she had suffered multi-organ failure with an 80% death rate.
‘The correct diagnosis – perforation of the oesophagus- was not detected in time’ concluded the judge.
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In the sentence, which Europa Press has gained access, the Fourth Section of the Administrative Contentious Hall of the TSJA in Sevilla, rejected the appeal made by the regional health authority SAS which was also claiming legal costs against the verdict issued in September 2013 by the judge in the Contentious Administrative 12 in Sevilla.
The SAS appealed alleging, among other reasons, the sentence had been in error in valuing the evidence, but the TSJA ‘coincided’ with the Judge believing their had been ‘a manifest error in diagnosis despite from the first moment the patient pointed out where she was suffering and had as a consequence developed a fever’.
A prompt diagnosis ‘would have permitted adequate and correct treatment against the infection, which would have avoided her dreadful deterioration which had put her life at risk’ noted the TSJA severely, adding ‘ damage done which could have been avoided with an adequate and urgent diagnosis’ and so we face ‘damages called medical malpractice’.
The president of the private association ‘In Defence of the Patient’ which had brought the case, Carmen Flores, angered this case ‘is a clear example of a lack of coordination and correct procedure in the administration of the SAS’, in fact the sentence notes ‘the lack of coordination between the public administrations cannot prejudice the users, and less so when this is a public health service.
The sentence now confirmed by the judge in the Contentious Administrative 12 in Sevilla put into manifest the successive errors in diagnosis ‘resulted’ that the patient ‘was left to suffer in extreme circumstances, where the death rate is over 80%’ and as the facts have proven, the patient was admitted for 171 days, 96 in the ICU
‘The lack of a prompt diagnosis had put the ill woman into a deep depression of both physical and psychological which has left a terrible aftermath for the rest of her life’, said the judge who revealed the consequences the patient had suffered, the removal of the large intestine, loss of hearing and important aesthetic deformity, retroactive depressive disorder, moral damages and ‘absolute’ incapacity to gain any employment.
According to the Defender of the Patient – the nightmare which the victim named as C.C.P began on November 19, 2007, when she choked on a chicken bone and felt the sensation of something stuck in her throat, reason enough to go the A&E department in the Écija hospital.
First diagnosis was made only ‘with a wooden tool to depress her tongue’ to look inside her mouth, and then she was sent home with the diagnosis of ‘strange pharyngeal object’, which resulted in 48 hours the woman returned to the same hospital ‘with her throat very inflamed and she reported she had choked on a chicken bone’
The health workers then carried out exactly the same procedure as two days before and sent her home with a new diagnosis of ‘acute pharyngotonsillitis’ and she was given a prescription by the outpatients doctor’, who sent her home and which resulted in no improvement.
Then the woman embarked on a pilgrimage visiting different health centres ‘ despite nobody noticing her condition was worsening’ until on December 1, 2007 after 13 days of close to strangulation, the Señora attended the district hospital in Osuna’ and collapsed at the door, leading to her being urgently evacuated by helicopter to the Virgen del Rocío Hospital in Sevilla.
Once admitted, her diagnosis was ‘disastrous’ as her oesophagus ‘was completely putrid’ given the presence of the chicken bone for ‘so many days’ and now ‘impossible to make a throat inspection as the infection had become generalised’.
The judge considered proved that ‘effectively there had been misdiagnoses and incorrect treatment in diverse health centres where the patient searched for help. In effect she had suffered multi-organ failure with an 80% death rate.
‘The correct diagnosis – perforation of the oesophagus- was not detected in time’ concluded the judge.
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