The Canary Islands Health Service has been sentenced for taking more than six months to diagnose terminal cancer. Specifically, the deceased patient went to the Adeje health center, in Tenerife, on more than 40 occasions and nothing was detected. In the sentence, handed down by the Administrative Litigation Court Number 3 of Santa Cruz de Tenerife to which the SER has had access, the authentic ordeal suffered by the patient during his last months of life is recounted.
It all started with a pain in the chest and a cough. The patient went to the Adeje Health Center. Despite the weight loss of more than 15 kilos, the family history, two of his immediate relatives had died from cancer and the excessive pain, he was not referred to the oncology service, neither on this nor on other occasions. In fact, the judge refers in the sentence, that the patient went 41 times to the health center in a period of 106 days, that is, an average of one consultation every two days, without being referred to a specialist.
Almost a year later he was admitted with a picture of lung cancer but it was too late. The patient would die after palliative sedation. He was 41 years old. For all these reasons, the judge considers that the health care received deviated from good clinical practice and that he did not receive palliative care in advance to mitigate his suffering, improving his quality of life and that of his relatives. The sentence condemns the Canary Islands Health Service to pay 30,000 euros in compensation. An appeal can be made against the sentence in the Superior Court of Justice of the Canary Islands.
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