The Court of Appeals of Antofagasta sentenced the Institute of Neurosurgery and the Dr. Leonardo Guzmán Regional Hospital to pay a total compensation of $200 million to the parents of a deceased patient.
The Jyoung man, 16 years old, died on November 23, 2016 due to negligent care of acute fulminant hepatitis, as detailed.
For this reason, in a unanimous ruling the Second Chamber of the appeal court confirmed the sentence handed down by the Fourth Civil Court of Antofagastawhich ordered the defendants to pay the costs.
As for the room, it was made up of ministers Virginia Soublette Miranda, Juan Opazo Lagos and Eric Sepúlveda Casanova.
For the court of appeal “It was considered proven that there was negligent conduct on the part of both defendants.in relation to its management, medical personnel.”
“A medical discharge without the procedure prescribed in the protocols, a confusing referral procedure, without timely information to the patient, deficient and untimely medical care, which, as the expert report concluded, could have been foreseen and avoided, causing the death of the plaintiffs’ son“, they pointed out.
Regarding the actions of the Institute of Neurosurgery, the ruling states that “Despite treating a patient who, in the postoperative process of a relevant surgical intervention, presents a condition that is not determined, with respect to which only diagnostic hypotheses were developed and which may result in serious complications.”
In this sense, they also maintained that “it disengages absolutely without adopting basic coordination and information measures to ensure that it is properly attended to, thus denoting an unjustifiable lack of professionalism and humanity.”
The resolution adds that the failure in the diagnosis of the Regional Hospital, preceded by the failure to comply with the duty of continuity of care on October 31, 2016, reduced the child’s chances of obtaining an accurate diagnosis on his second visit to the emergency care service.
Finally, they highlighted that the diagnostic error by the Antofagasta Regional Hospital, as a result of the lack of service from the Neurosurgery Institute, could have been foreseen, “with technology and history existing in their clinical record of transfer to said establishment.”
