This Tuesday, the unfortunate death of a minor was announced in the Emergency Service of the Red Salud Elqui clinic, located on Avenida El Santo, in the commune of La Serena. It was a 9-year-old boy, who entered the premises without vital signs in the company of his parents, according to the police report to which Diario El Día had access.
After the death was confirmed, the police who arrived at the clinic interviewed the health personnel, who informed them that the child had been suffering from obstructive bronchitis for 10 days. In fact, they say that he had been treated that morning without major complications, when he was given medication because his parents had not been able to give it to him orally.
Then, according to the Carabineros report, the child was sent to his home. However, hours later, his parents returned with him to the health facility, where he entered the Emergency Room without vital signs.
SML CONFIRMS CAUSE OF DEATH
On that occasion, the doctor on duty stated that she did not have a probable cause for the patient’s death, which is why the Prosecutor’s Office ordered the Legal Medical Service to perform the required autopsy.
In this way, the organization informed our media that, based on the thanatology report, the cause of death of the infant would correspond to a case of peritonitis.
For now, the La Serena Prosecutor’s Office reported that the case is still open and the body has already been ordered to be handed over to his relatives.
THEY POINT TO ERROR IN DIAGNOSIS
In the midst of the deep pain due to the sudden loss, those who knew closely the situation of the deceased minor were the officials of the American Autism Foundation.
In conversation with El Día, its president, Elizabeth Fredes Rosales, explained that the victim carried out her treatments with an occupational therapist, psychologist and speech therapist in said place.
“We all knew him. “She always went with her father or mother twice a week,” she says.
Along these lines, he assured that the child did not attend therapy last week “because he was sick, so the mother did not take him and since he had not attended, she sent the secretary the medical diagnosis, which was rhinitis, along with the prescription, for which, they left him an inhaler and other medications.”
“During the night of this Tuesday, we found out that he died, and they took him to the Legal Medical Service. They did the autopsy, and the mother writes to me informing me that her son died of peritonitis due to appendicitis, which was what he had, and that the clinic misdiagnosed him,” she explains.
At this point, Fredes performs a scope. “While it is true that children with autism speak, he had echolalia, which is when they repeat some things, but do not express themselves, and generally have more resistance to pain, and perhaps, something that for us would have been extreme, for them it is not so much. So, perhaps, it hurt him but he didn’t show it as much,” he says.
In any case, the president of the foundation announced that she will present legal actions against those responsible for the child’s death. “As a lawyer I will support the parents. Although I know that nothing is going to give them back their son, a precedent must remain so that it does not happen again, because here we are talking about a clinic,” she pointed out.
COLLABORATION WITH AUTHORITIES
Through a public statement, meanwhile, the Red Salud Elqui clinic regretted the death of the minor, reiterating that “yesterday afternoon (Tuesday) he was admitted to the emergency room without vital signs, a situation that could not be reversed despite all the efforts deployed by the medical personnel on duty.”
“The clinic immediately notified Carabineros and requested an investigation by the Legal Medical Service to determine exactly the causes of death. All of this, with the consent of the parents, to whom support and emotional containment have been provided,” the statement added.
