A reader wanted to share with La Voz his experience in the emergency room of the Doctor José Molina Orosa Hospital, in Lanzarote, where his mother was treated after suffering a fainting spell in her home and in which she ended up dying the next day. The man wanted to convey to the health workers that although "an error may seem inevitable", when "that error affects your life, or that of a loved one, it ceases to be a statistic and becomes a wound".
This citizen has assured that his mother, a 79-year-old woman, suffered a fall in her home and managed to notify the neighbors to call Emergencies. The woman entered the hospital with pain in the epigastric area, general discomfort and nausea. Finally, she was treated as if she had suffered a heart attack. According to the clinical report that the patient's son has sent to this media, the woman suffered a hemorrhage and had to be induced into a coma, with the health workers determining that her neurological recovery was unlikely.
This medical report states that "it is suspected" that the medication received and the catheterization to which the woman was subjected, as well as her "unfortunate" neurological prognosis, led to the complication of her health. This report also states that, in all probability, the patient's evolution would also have been "fatal" independently of the treatments received. Finally, the woman died last Saturday, August 16.
This citizen has highlighted that as a person who has suffered the consequences of a possible "error", he has asked the health professionals to "take a moment to reflect": "It is not just about being human and making mistakes, it is about having the humility to recognize the failure and the courage to investigate it thoroughly". In this sense, he has asked the health workers "not to get used to it, not to trust themselves". "The life of a patient is the most important thing. Every detail, no matter how small it may seem, can save it," he stressed.
Asks for more control
In a letter addressed to this media, this citizen has asked the health workers to "listen to those who complain, because sometimes that complaint is the missing key". Thus, he has asked that they "do not hide in routine or comfort" and that they "demand from their colleagues" and from themselves, that they "carry out their work with the utmost rigor".
"It is crucial that there is greater control over the health personnel so that they perform as they should," he indicated. In this line, he has assured that it is "necessary that the emergency rooms have highly experienced professionals at the front, supporting the rest". To which he added that the "experience, the wisdom of someone who has seen thousands of cases, is infinitely more valuable than a master's degree" and that "it is that experience that can make the difference between a fatal error and a life saved".
In addition, he added that "true professionalism does not reside in the absence of errors, but in the obligation to learn from them so that no one else has to live what I lived." Finally, he asked "for all of us who, like me, are on the other side. Our lives are in your hands."