Tragic consequences of routine procedures or baby swapping. In the past, high penalties and compensation have already been imposed for misconduct in domestic hospitals. There were also frequent bans on activities. Courts, however, usually drag on for many years, and families do not receive monetary compensation from their loved ones. The editorial staff of CNN Prima NEWS addresses the topic in connection with the fatal mix-up of patients at the Bulovka University Hospital in Prague, which resulted in the abortion of a healthy woman.
Adamek ended up in a coma after the operation
The tragic case took place in May 2017 in the Pardubice Hospital. Eight-year-old Adamek suddenly started bleeding four days after the tonsil operation. The nurses sent him alone with only his mother to the ambulance. Unfortunately, before it was possible to get professional help, the consequences were already irreversible.
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“The series of misconduct was so complex that it cannot be explained in a nutshell. Initially, they did not provide him with effective first aid, and subsequently, due to various consequences, the patient was transferred, which was unfortunate and incorrect,” said prosecutor Lukáš Hrubý.
The boy has been in a so-called waking coma for seven years. “Nobody knew what to do. Where should he call? Everything was wrong,” Adamk’s mother recalled. “The ENT specialist was there in 13 minutes. ARO in 19. And primary in 22 minutes. Everyone was in the hospital,” added Jan Vyčítal, the boy’s father.
A doctor and a nurse were given conditions and a ban on activity for causing serious bodily injury due to negligence.
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Infant died due to oversalted solution
The treatment of a fifteen-month-old infant in the hospital in Domažlice in March 2020 also ended in tragedy. After he swallowed raw beans, the head of the children’s department ordered him to wash his stomach with a saline solution. But there were complications.
“I turned him on his side, he vomited. I was looking for a sister. She took the little one and ran with him to the infirmary,” MF DNES quotes the child’s mother.
The oversalted solution caused brain swelling in the child. He died after a few hours in the hospital. For negligent homicide, the court imposed a two-year probation and a three-year ban on the doctor. The child’s parents did not participate in the make-up.
“It’s probably impossible to accurately describe the feelings of someone who loses a child from these causes,” said Petr Řehoř, representative of the survivors.
They left the senior woman in excruciating pain
In May 2010, the Frýdek-Místek Hospital admitted a seventy-four-year-old woman with abdominal pain. Doctors prescribed her three enemas. However, this made her problems even worse.
The last thing the elderly woman said to her son was that he was dying in excruciating pain. “Mom really shocked me with the sentence that the first enema was so brutal that she screamed at the whole hospital. At half past one in the morning, my mother called my mobile phone that she was in such pain that she was dying,” said the son of the deceased, Pavel Olšovský.
But the doctor refused to check her in person and only remotely prescribed opiates to calm her down. When another doctor found her in critical condition in the morning, he was unable to save the woman. She died after three weeks in a coma due to a ruptured intestine. The doctor was fined 150,000 crowns and banned for three years.
The nurse confused the newborn
The consequences of malpractice in hospitals may not only be fatal. The case of Nikolka and Verunka from the end of 2006 is also well-known. The newborn was switched by a nurse in the maternity hospital in Třebíč. She didn’t even think it was suspicious that one of the children was suddenly half a kilo heavier.
“The nurse told me that they changed the scales because their computers didn’t work, but that the children are fine,” said Nikolka’s mother, Jaroslava Čermáková.
“A woman is so tired after giving birth that she doesn’t think at all that they could bring her another child,” outlined Jaroslava Trojanová, Verunka’s mother.
The parents raised a stranger’s child for ten months. After years of struggle, the court finally awarded them more than three million in compensation.
In addition, in the Czech Republic, embryos have also been confused in the past, namely at the Brno reproductive clinic. The error affected two foreign couples in 2016. The case then ended with a fine of 800,000 crowns and an out-of-court financial settlement.
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Tags: Child swapping coma death Bulovka tragedy preceded mistakes hospitals
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