On Friday, in an interview with CNN television channel, the husband of the pregnant woman – who did not respond to the request for clarification made by Lusa last week – recounted that on the 5th (the day when the Obstetrics emergency was closed) his wife was taking a shower and had a miscarriage. They both then went to the hospital emergency, about half an hour from their residence, with the fetus “inside a bag.”
While the woman remained in the vehicle, bleeding, the man went to the hospital’s reception in the Leiria district. “Two porters asked me if I needed help, and I said that my wife apparently had a miscarriage, she was there and needed to be seen because she was bleeding,” he reported.
The porters, he added, “responded that the hospital was not attending to pregnant women and asked me to call the numbers” indicated on the poster affixed to the door, so he called 112.
When questioned again by Lusa, the commander of the Caldas da Rainha Fire Department, Nelson Cruz, said that the statements made by the victim’s husband to CNN “are all true and describe exactly what happened.”
However, when also confronted with the man’s description, the Local Health Unit (ULS) of the West, to which the hospital belongs, responded that the man questioned each of the security guards twice “without mentioning at any time the reason for coming to the hospital unit” or giving “relevant information about the need for medical assistance.”
Therefore, he was informed that the Gynecology/Obstetrics emergency would not be functioning and that he should follow the instructions on the posted sign, with the phone numbers for the Health Line 24 or 112, which the man resorted to.
The hospital only learned of the woman’s health condition when contacted by the Urgent Patient Guidance Center (CODU) for an obstetrician to evaluate the patient, after the Caldas da Rainha fire department ambulance was dispatched to the hospital parking lot.
“As soon as the ULS do Oeste obstetrician became aware of the situation, she gave instructions for the patient to be admitted to the emergency room, and she was then promptly assisted,” the hospital institution stated, adding that “the situation received the necessary and appropriate medical care for the clinical situation” and that the woman “remained under observation in the hospital unit.”
Nelson Cruz countered, stating that even before CODU contacted the hospital at the firefighters’ request, the man insisted at the emergency room for his wife to be seen, receiving the response that a doctor would go to the vehicle where she was, which did not happen.
ULS Oeste mentioned having instituted an “internal control action” to “assess the internal procedures in force regarding contingencies in the Gynecology/Obstetrics emergency” and to have “permanent monitoring of the health care provided,” also being “available to introduce improvements.”
Additionally, it is cooperating with the inquiries opened by the General Inspection of Health Activities (IGAS) and the Health Services Regulatory Authority (ERSE).
On the 5th, Commander Nelson Cruz reported that at 07:21, an ambulance from the fire department was dispatched by CODU to assist a 32-year-old woman who was in front of the emergency room, inside her car, with hemorrhaging after suffering a miscarriage.
Upon arrival, the firefighters passed information about the woman’s condition to CODU and told the husband to go inside the hospital to ask for help, although the man had already done so when they arrived.
“CODU gave the option of going to Maternidade Bissaya Barreto in Coimbra, but the colleague warned that the lady was bleeding so heavily that it wouldn’t be easy to get there […] safely without having different support, because it’s 130 kilometers, more than an hour’s journey,” he said.
After the firefighters’ insistence with CODU and the guidance center with the hospital, he reported, the woman was seen by a doctor at 08:04.
