On that day (when the Obstetrics emergency was closed), the commander of the Caldas da Rainha fire department, Nelson Cruz, reported that at 07:21 a fire department ambulance was dispatched by the Urgent Patient Guidance Center (CODU) to assist a 32-year-old woman who was in front of the emergency room, inside her car, with hemorrhaging after suffering a spontaneous miscarriage.
Upon arrival, the firefighters relayed information about the woman’s condition to CODU and told her husband to go inside the hospital to ask for help, although the man had already done so when they arrived.
“CODU gave the option to go 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 specialized support, because it’s 130 kilometers, more than an hour’s drive,” 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.
The Local Health Unit (ULS) of the West, to which the Caldas da Rainha hospital belongs, clarified that the woman was “promptly admitted” when the unit learned of her condition, which is rejected by the family and firefighters.
Speaking to CNN television, the pregnant woman’s husband – who did not respond to a request for clarification from Lusa – said his wife was taking a shower when she miscarried, and they both went to the hospital emergency room, about half an hour from their place of residence, with the fetus “inside a bag.”
While the woman remained in the vehicle, hemorrhaging, the man went to the hospital’s reception area in the Leiria district.
“Two doormen asked me if I needed help and I said that my wife apparently had a spontaneous miscarriage, she was there and needed to be seen because she was bleeding,” he reported.
The doormen, he added, “responded that the hospital was not seeing pregnant women and asked me to call the numbers” indicated on the poster affixed to the door, so he called 112.
However, also confronted with the man’s description, the ULS 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 said it only learned of the woman’s health condition when contacted by CODU for an obstetrician to evaluate the patient, after the Caldas da Rainha fire department ambulance was dispatched to the parking lot.
“The obstetrician from ULS do Oeste, as soon as she became aware of the situation, 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.”
The fire department commander countered by saying that, even before CODU’s contact with 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 reported having initiated an “internal control action” to “assess the internal procedures in force regarding contingencies in the Gynecology/Obstetrics emergency” and is collaborating in the inquiries opened by the General Inspection of Health Activities (IGAS) and the Health Services Regulatory Authority (ERSE).
