There is an awareness that is making its way these days of agony and pain. “We want to know the truth, what are the causes of the outbreak that broke out within Medicine. In our opinion it is a case of medical malpractice“: Words that are scanned with suffering by family members of the first victim hospitalized in Medicine, department affected by second cluster covid ascertained within theCardarelli hospital in Campobasso.
Eight days ago, on January 20, An 80-year-old elder passed away: he had been hospitalized in medicine for a month. And he was waiting to know if he had to undergo surgery or if the therapies that the doctors were evaluating would be enough to solve a health problem that had required the transfer to the hospital in the capital. You will never know: it was the virus that killed him, taken to the hospital. For his family there are no doubts.
“Three days before admission – they say – he was subjected to a molecular swab because his pathology, a pulmonary carnification, was usually resolved with antibiotic therapy. We suspected that he had a coronavirus infection, but the molecular swab gave a negative result ”. Unfortunately the health conditions of the elderly do not improve. After a respiratory crisis, a few days before Christmas, admission to the Medicine ward is decided of the Cardarelli hospital. “Again he was subjected to a molecular swab before admission. The outcome – they reiterate – was negative for the second time”.
The first days of the new year feed the anguish of family members. The virus enters the non-covid departments of the hospital infecting a total of about 60 people between health workers and patients: first in Surgery (January 3), where one of the hospitalized patients – a 74-year-old woman – who contracts the infection dies, then in Medicine (January 13). When the outbreak breaks out, the 80-year-old elder undergoes the third swab. This is also negative.
However, the family doesn’t have time to breathe a sigh of relief. The molecular test is repeated two days later and the diagnosis of positivity is ‘decreed’. On January 20, the 80-year-old, with his already fragile lungs, loses the battle with covid.
“We had the news of his death at 9.30 on January 20”, they declare with the pain of those who cannot find peace for a death considered inexplicable, or that could have been avoided. “He could probably have lived a few more years: after all, he was not a bedridden person. And in the hospital the last time we saw him he was smiling, he walked with his legs “.
For the relatives, the death of the elderly is due to the management of Cardarelli, transformed into a ‘mixed’ hospital in the last year, in which both covid patients and non-covid patients are treated. And in these days, after the funeral which took place in a strictly private form and after the handling of the paperwork, they understood that this dramatic story cannot end here. “For us it is a case of medical malpractice. We reserve the right to file a complaint to shed light on the incident “, they insist by announcing that they are ready to go to a lawyer.
At the police station he decided to contact the son of the 74-year-old patient hospitalized in surgery and died of covid to file a complaint. The documents were transferred in recent days to the Prosecutor’s Office.
Waiting to learn how the judiciary will move with respect to the complaints also presented by the lawyer Iacovino on behalf of the Committee of the relatives of the victims of the covid, the management of the Cardarelli hospital constitutes the Achilles heel of Molise healthcare. Unfortunately, we have been talking about it for weeks: the criticalities of the covid hub had been highlighted in the inspection by the Carabinieri del Nas and confirmed by the health commissioner Angelo Giustini. According to him, there is a mixture of the covid and non-covid paths.
Yesterday (January 27) the inspectors of the Ministry of Health called to verify the origin of the outbreak in the departments of Surgery and Medicine.
However, the checks by the bodies in charge – assuming that they will make it possible to ascertain any responsibilities – will not be able to alleviate the pain of the loss of a family member who, due to the covid, was not even able to give a last caress.
Inspectors of the Ministry in Molise hospitals to verify compliance with the protocols
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