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13-01-2023, 07:57 PM
Radio Sintonia:
Sentenced the insurer of a midwife to pay 3 million euros for serious recklessness to the parents of a girl with cerebral palsy.
The Provincial Court of Las Palmas has confirmed in all its terms the sentence of the Criminal Court number 2 of Puerto del Rosario that in November 2020 sentenced a midwife of the General Hospital of Fuerteventura to four months in prison for a crime of injury due to serious professional negligence, and declared the direct civil liability of its insurance company – and subsidiary of the Canary Islands Health Service – in the payment of a compensation for damages of 3,090,436 euros, and an annual and lifetime pension of 25,000 euros.
The sentence now confirmed by the Chamber is related to the serious and irreversible injuries that, due to the "negligence and lack of professional diligence" of the midwife, suffered and currently suffers a girl who was born in the General Hospital of Fuerteventura on September 20, 2008.
The ruling of the First Section of the Court of Las Palmas, which rejects the appeals of the convicted woman and her insurer, confirms the imposition on the nurse of four months in prison and special disqualification from exercising her profession for a period of one year, and determines that she must compensate the parents of the girl, with direct civil liability of the insurer Mapfre and subsidiary of
the Canary Islands Health Service, in the amount of 3,090,436.49 euros for injuries, sequelae, loss of earnings and emerging and moral damages, in addition to paying an annual and lifetime pension of 25,000 euros, to which must be added the legal interest. The Chamber also orders him to pay the costs of the appeal.
The proven facts According to the sentence, on September 20, 2008, the girl's
mother, nine months and one week pregnant, went to the General Hospital of Fuerteventura for a routine check-up, being assisted by the gynecologist on duty. This, assessing her condition, initially indicated that she was going to be subjected to an induction of labor, because it is a gestation in the process of prolongation.
From that first moment, the ruling emphasizes, it was controlled by the midwife. He was prepared for a pre-induction, without proving whether he had really been given oxytocin to accelerate contractions or not. However, the failure declares proven, "fetal monitoring was performed, which began at 9:10 am, being initially indicated on the monitor, a reactivity, variability and little or no uterine activity, subsequently ranges considered normal with some transient accelerations and low uterine motility are assessed, and it is from 12:30 pm until approximately 1:30 pm, when uterine activity is in crescendo until accounting for five contractions in periods of 10 minutes of great intensity, with high basal tone, reaching 6 contractions every 10 minutes and basal uterine pressure at all times above 20 mgHg ".
With this uterine activity objectified at least in 50 minutes of previous registration, the sentence continues, at 13:45 hours the midwife, "without consulting the doctor, suspends monitoring and records, despite the fact that from 12.30 there was a significant increase in uterine contractility".
At this time the fetal heart rate was still between ranges considered normal, however there were five and six contractions every ten minutes.
The frequency and intensity of uterine contractions increased, "complaining about it the patient, who was with her husband in a room, who went on several occasions to the office of the midwife to report the state of his wife, on two of the occasions and despite the complaints of the patient, the midwife told her that she was not in labor yet, that had not dilated sufficiently, about 13:30 hours the records of the monitor reached 5 contractions every 10 minutes.
The resolution emphasizes that despite this, and with these records "that showed that the parturient was in labor", the midwife, "without consulting the gynecologist, demonitored the patient at 1:45 p.m., all without recording these circumstances in the clinical history or in the midwife's sheet".
Complaints of pain "Despite the continuous complaints of pain
of the patient, she is not attended again until at 3:55 p.m., unmonitored and without any follow-up of the evolution of her delivery, the bag ruptures, there is a fainting of the patient who is carried in her husband's arms and the record is resumed, the fetus was already found with very severe bradycardia with persistence of uterine hypertonia," he says.
Warned the gynecologist at that time, he performed an emergency cesarean section at 4:30 p.m., the little girl was born in cardiorespiratory arrest, being intubated for asystole and apnea, withdrawing the intubation at four or five hours, when she began to breathe spontaneously. The diagnosis at birth, recorded in the pediatrician's medical history, was:
"Female newborn, weighing according to gestational age in cardiorespiratory arrest, without spontaneous breathing and with an initial Apgar [test that evaluates the health status of the baby] of two for hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy due to acute fetal distress".
As a result of all this, the ruling concludes, the girl suffered irreversible damage, suffering from infantile cerebral palsy type spastic tetraperesis due to perinatal fetal suffering (hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy) "that prevents her from leading an independent life, being necessary a person by her side 24 hours a day, with total loss of physical autonomy, intellectual and sensory, needing help for all activities of daily living (can not carry out the basic activities of daily living, eating, cleaning, mobilization, does not control sphincters) and permanently needs an orthosis for its stability, being necessary its change as its growth occurs.
The minor, currently 14 years old, has recognized grade III (great dependence) by the Government of the Canary Islands. She has been admitted to the Hospital on multiple occasions for recurrent pneumonia. She has been surgically operated on at least two occasions for the placement of gastrotomy, through which she takes food and drink and is pending hip surgery through a botox injection, an operation that must be repeated every six months.
"Neglect and lack of diligence" The judgment of the Court rejects the appeal of the midwife and expresses its full agreement with the criterion of the magistrate who judged the case in the first instance, in the sense of considering proven that the nurse "
acted incorrectly with insufficient approach to the protocol that required her in the specific case to have acted in another very different way according to the range of knowledge that was required and that indeed had." The Chamber adds that this "inadequate" approach to his professional work "clearly enhanced the likelihood of the harmful result occurring".
"The negligence and lack of professional diligence of the midwife in the follow-up of the induced labor process that concerns us has been fully recorded," states the legal basis of the appeal ruling, "and that this action has potentially increased the risk and probability of the harmful result suffered, which has resulted in cerebral palsy that has been detailed in terms of its origin and extension, and
the responsibility of the professional who acts as guarantor has been linked to this increase in risk beyond what is allowed, which translates her action into negligent".
The decision is subject to appeal in cassation to the Supreme Court.
Sentenced the insurer of a midwife to pay 3 million euros for serious recklessness to the parents of a girl with cerebral palsy.
The Provincial Court of Las Palmas has confirmed in all its terms the sentence of the Criminal Court number 2 of Puerto del Rosario that in November 2020 sentenced a midwife of the General Hospital of Fuerteventura to four months in prison for a crime of injury due to serious professional negligence, and declared the direct civil liability of its insurance company – and subsidiary of the Canary Islands Health Service – in the payment of a compensation for damages of 3,090,436 euros, and an annual and lifetime pension of 25,000 euros.
The sentence now confirmed by the Chamber is related to the serious and irreversible injuries that, due to the "negligence and lack of professional diligence" of the midwife, suffered and currently suffers a girl who was born in the General Hospital of Fuerteventura on September 20, 2008.
The ruling of the First Section of the Court of Las Palmas, which rejects the appeals of the convicted woman and her insurer, confirms the imposition on the nurse of four months in prison and special disqualification from exercising her profession for a period of one year, and determines that she must compensate the parents of the girl, with direct civil liability of the insurer Mapfre and subsidiary of
the Canary Islands Health Service, in the amount of 3,090,436.49 euros for injuries, sequelae, loss of earnings and emerging and moral damages, in addition to paying an annual and lifetime pension of 25,000 euros, to which must be added the legal interest. The Chamber also orders him to pay the costs of the appeal.
The proven facts According to the sentence, on September 20, 2008, the girl's
mother, nine months and one week pregnant, went to the General Hospital of Fuerteventura for a routine check-up, being assisted by the gynecologist on duty. This, assessing her condition, initially indicated that she was going to be subjected to an induction of labor, because it is a gestation in the process of prolongation.
From that first moment, the ruling emphasizes, it was controlled by the midwife. He was prepared for a pre-induction, without proving whether he had really been given oxytocin to accelerate contractions or not. However, the failure declares proven, "fetal monitoring was performed, which began at 9:10 am, being initially indicated on the monitor, a reactivity, variability and little or no uterine activity, subsequently ranges considered normal with some transient accelerations and low uterine motility are assessed, and it is from 12:30 pm until approximately 1:30 pm, when uterine activity is in crescendo until accounting for five contractions in periods of 10 minutes of great intensity, with high basal tone, reaching 6 contractions every 10 minutes and basal uterine pressure at all times above 20 mgHg ".
With this uterine activity objectified at least in 50 minutes of previous registration, the sentence continues, at 13:45 hours the midwife, "without consulting the doctor, suspends monitoring and records, despite the fact that from 12.30 there was a significant increase in uterine contractility".
At this time the fetal heart rate was still between ranges considered normal, however there were five and six contractions every ten minutes.
The frequency and intensity of uterine contractions increased, "complaining about it the patient, who was with her husband in a room, who went on several occasions to the office of the midwife to report the state of his wife, on two of the occasions and despite the complaints of the patient, the midwife told her that she was not in labor yet, that had not dilated sufficiently, about 13:30 hours the records of the monitor reached 5 contractions every 10 minutes.
The resolution emphasizes that despite this, and with these records "that showed that the parturient was in labor", the midwife, "without consulting the gynecologist, demonitored the patient at 1:45 p.m., all without recording these circumstances in the clinical history or in the midwife's sheet".
Complaints of pain "Despite the continuous complaints of pain
of the patient, she is not attended again until at 3:55 p.m., unmonitored and without any follow-up of the evolution of her delivery, the bag ruptures, there is a fainting of the patient who is carried in her husband's arms and the record is resumed, the fetus was already found with very severe bradycardia with persistence of uterine hypertonia," he says.
Warned the gynecologist at that time, he performed an emergency cesarean section at 4:30 p.m., the little girl was born in cardiorespiratory arrest, being intubated for asystole and apnea, withdrawing the intubation at four or five hours, when she began to breathe spontaneously. The diagnosis at birth, recorded in the pediatrician's medical history, was:
"Female newborn, weighing according to gestational age in cardiorespiratory arrest, without spontaneous breathing and with an initial Apgar [test that evaluates the health status of the baby] of two for hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy due to acute fetal distress".
As a result of all this, the ruling concludes, the girl suffered irreversible damage, suffering from infantile cerebral palsy type spastic tetraperesis due to perinatal fetal suffering (hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy) "that prevents her from leading an independent life, being necessary a person by her side 24 hours a day, with total loss of physical autonomy, intellectual and sensory, needing help for all activities of daily living (can not carry out the basic activities of daily living, eating, cleaning, mobilization, does not control sphincters) and permanently needs an orthosis for its stability, being necessary its change as its growth occurs.
The minor, currently 14 years old, has recognized grade III (great dependence) by the Government of the Canary Islands. She has been admitted to the Hospital on multiple occasions for recurrent pneumonia. She has been surgically operated on at least two occasions for the placement of gastrotomy, through which she takes food and drink and is pending hip surgery through a botox injection, an operation that must be repeated every six months.
"Neglect and lack of diligence" The judgment of the Court rejects the appeal of the midwife and expresses its full agreement with the criterion of the magistrate who judged the case in the first instance, in the sense of considering proven that the nurse "
acted incorrectly with insufficient approach to the protocol that required her in the specific case to have acted in another very different way according to the range of knowledge that was required and that indeed had." The Chamber adds that this "inadequate" approach to his professional work "clearly enhanced the likelihood of the harmful result occurring".
"The negligence and lack of professional diligence of the midwife in the follow-up of the induced labor process that concerns us has been fully recorded," states the legal basis of the appeal ruling, "and that this action has potentially increased the risk and probability of the harmful result suffered, which has resulted in cerebral palsy that has been detailed in terms of its origin and extension, and
the responsibility of the professional who acts as guarantor has been linked to this increase in risk beyond what is allowed, which translates her action into negligent".
The decision is subject to appeal in cassation to the Supreme Court.