Family awarded 160,000 euros compensation for death of newborn baby due to medical negligence

The Castilla-La Mancha health service (Sescam) in Spain has been ordered to pay 160,000 euros to a family for the death of their newborn baby girl, Valeria, as a result of medical negligence.

The events happened at Hospital General of Tomelloso (Ciudad Real) in November 2013, when the mother was admitted due to a premature rupture of membranes. Her pregnancy had been normal, but the rupture prompted emergency medical care. The healthcare professionals found that the mother had greenish-yellowish meconium fluid. Despite this, no continuous monitoring was carried out.

Five hours later, the doctors noted foetal distress in the baby. They decided to perform an emergency caesarean section. The baby was born covered in large quantities of meconium. The obvious signs of hypotonia and hypoactivity were ignored and not monitored.

The baby's condition worsened and the doctors decided to intubate her. However, the intubation was done incorrectly as the tube ruptured the right lung and caused her left lung to collapse. According to the Ciudad Real court, "a simple X-ray would have revealed the incorrect intubation". The girl was transferred to Hospital La Mancha Centro in Alcázar de San Juan (Ciudad Real) where she died of cardiorespiratory arrest.

The family took the case to court through the El Defensor del Paciente association. The court found it proven that Valeria had died due to the negligence of the healthcare professionals and that "if they had acted diligently following the protocols, the newborn's death would have been prevented".