The death of a 31-week pregnant woman while being transferred from one hospital to another due to lack of vacancies in neonatology has already led to the opening of three lawsuits: one prosecutor’s investigation (MP) one administrative process determined by the Health Regulatory Entity (ERS) and a inspection instituted by the General Inspection of Sanitary Activities (IGAS). The 34-year-old woman suffered a cardiorespiratory arrest while being transferred by ambulance from the Santa Maria Hospital to the São Francisco Xavier Hospital, both in Lisbon, since there were no vacancies in neonatology in the first hospital unit to admit the baby after the labor was induced.
In addition to the initiation of a judicial investigation, “the The Public Ministry ordered a medical-legal necropsy to be performed on the pregnant womanaccording to information confirmed by the Attorney General of the Republic to the Observer.
Pregnant woman dies after hospital transfer due to lack of vacancy
ERS confirmed in an email sent to the Observer the opening of “a administrative process to investigate the facts that have been disseminated by the media, referring to the death of a pregnant user in Lisbon” – and that led to the resignation of the Minister of Health, Marta Temido.
Shortly after the opening of an administrative procedure by the ERS was made public, the IGAS also announced the establishment of an inspection of the transfer of a pregnant woman ‘by a alleged lack of vacancy in the Neonatology Service from the first hospital unit that admitted the baby when the delivery was induced,” reads the statement sent to the newsrooms.
IGAS adds that the objective of the research will be to understand “the reason why the user was transferred”, “who was responsible for the transfer decision and under what clinical assumptions did they ensure that the patient could be transferred safely”, “what was the situation of the Santa María Hospital Neonatology Service on the date of the patient’s transfer”, “Under what circumstances did death occur?” and if “there were alternative and safer solutions to the transfer of the user”.
In the same statement, IGAS adds that “after the preparation and approval of the inspection process report” it will release “its results, similar to what was done in the case of a recently concluded process and what will happen in the case of two other inspection processes that are currently underway.
Queen syrup. Physician who assisted pregnant woman who miscarried subject to disciplinary record
Source: Observadora
