Hospital blunders that leave patients forever the worse can take years to settle but this week two cases were finally brought to some sort of conclusion. Correio da Manhã reports on the €172,000 settlement for a bungled surgery that left a woman doubly incontinent and “unfit for any kind of profession” and a €15,000 pay out for a patient who had “a third of his leg removed” and has waited 17 years to hear his allegation of medical error considered by a court.
The first case was taken out against the beleaguered Alfredo da Costa Maternity Hospital in Lisbon, which is also being investigated for the death of a young mother in childbirth, along with her twin babies, last summer. The newspaper reports that the woman who was rendered doubly incontinent had to wait 13 years for a court decision. Also in Lisbon, a man who alleged medical error in a case where a third of his leg was amputated at Hospital do Barreiro has had to wait since 1994 to see his case considered.
The Central Administrative Tribunal last week fined the State €15,000 for the violation of the man’s right to have a decision on his case within a reasonable period of time.
CM adds that, between 2005 and 2007, “requests for damages against public hospitals because of errors exceeded €29 million”.
