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Torrevieja hospital forks out 450k to woman who had her arm amputated
The 65-year-old attended the Vega Baja hospital for a simple shoulder surgery
Torrevieja Hospital hasn’t exactly been receiving glowing reviews since its management was taken over by the Valencian government last October and the facility is back under the spotlight for another botched operation.
A 65-year-old woman sued the hospital’s insurance company, Berkshire Hathaway, for medical malpractice after undergoing what should have been a straightforward fracture-dislocation operation on her left shoulder in January 2021.
However, as a result of the procedure, her entire arm eventually had to be amputated and Torrevieja University Hospital has been ordered to pay the patient 450,000 euros in compensation.
On the day of the January 26 operation, the surgeon noticed a macroscopic vessel that appeared to be bleeding. He made the split-second assumption that the bleed was coming from a vein rather than an artery and stopped the flow.
Shortly after the procedure, the patient suffered arterial ischaemia that developed into deep vein thrombosis which was left untreated for more than 48 hours, “making the amputation of the left limb inevitable.”
That’s according to an investigation carried out by the regional health authorities and an independent specialist, who both concluded that the hospital had been medically negligent in the treatment of the post-operative symptoms.
In April last year, the Provincial Court of Madrid ordered Torrevieja Hospital and the Lo Marabú health centre in Rojales to pay 250,000 euros in compensation to the family of a two-year-old child who died following “repeated medical errors”.
Image: Hospital Universitario de Torrevieja
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