Andalusian Health Service to pay 100,000 euros to children of woman who died in emergency waiting room

The patient was dead on a stretcher in the waiting room for twelve hours after being classified as priority level four instead of two

Friday, 19 July 2024, 11:24

A Jaén court has ordered the Andalusian Health Service (SAS) to pay 100,000 euros in compensation to the five children of a woman who died after being left alone for twelve hours in the emergency room of the Hospital San Juan de la Cruz in Úbeda (Jaén), in December 2017. Although the criminal proceedings were closed in 2019, the children of the deceased, who was aged 64, filed a claim of patrimonial liability against the SAS. The judgement is not yet final and can be appealed.

The ruling, consulted by Europa Press through law firm Megías Almagro, establishes that given "her condition and general deterioration", the patient should have been "classified with a higher priority, level two instead of four", when she arrived at the emergency department. "This error in the classification and the lack of attention during her stay were the determining factors, upon not having observed that she had suffered an acute heart attack," it declared.

For the magistrate, the "inadequate classification and management of her case by the hospital staff were the critical factors that led to a clear loss of opportunity to save the patient's life". The magistrate added that "had she received the appropriate treatment in a timely manner, her chances of survival would have increased significantly".

The ruling also agrees with the SAS in its argument that "the compensation, although comprehensive, cannot be regarded as profit", but "it is a question of the loss of a mother, which, although in no way can be valued, the moral damage is very great and cannot be compensated in any material way".

However, taking into account the circumstances of the case, the age of the deceased and the injured parties, the magistrate considers that "a total compensation of 100,000 euros, 20,000 euros for each of the children, will be reasonable compensation, although it can never make up for the loss of such a loved one".

The events took place on 21 December 2017 when a doctor in Quesada (Jaén) decided to transfer the patient to the San Juan de la Cruz Hospital in Úbeda. During the transfer, she was accompanied by an assistant from the nursing home where she lived. Once in Úbeda, the assistant left her under the hospital's guardianship. The woman arrived at the emergency room around 2pm and stayed there waiting to be attended to once she had passed the triage consultation. All evidence suggests that she was called, but as she was not in a position to answer, the hospital assumed that she had left. The woman actually remained on a stretcher without anyone noticing that she was not receiving attention.

It was not until twelve hours later, after two shift changes, that a medical professional asked for the identity of the person on the stretcher. When they went to attend to her, she was found dead. It was at this point that the judicial authorities were informed.

From the moment the case first came to light publicly, the then Territorial Delegation of Equality, Health and Social Policies opened two confidential inquiries, one into the management of the Úbeda Hospital and the other into Social Services to clarify the situation of the deceased, who was a resident in a nursing home in Quesada.

At the time, the then managing director of the hospital, Antonio Resola, attributed the incident to "organisational problems" that prevented him from realising that the patient had been lying on a stretcher for hours without medical attention.

Although the SAS has now acknowledged that "it is true that there was a lack of coordination associated with an overcrowded on-call shift, during which a patient with cognitive deterioration was left unaccompanied", it sought to pay 6,000 euros in compensation to cover the combined cost of transferring the deceased out of the hospital and of the funeral. However, the ruling raised the amount to 100,000 euros.

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