The Superior Court of Justice has sentenced the Servizo Galego de Saúde (Sergas) to pay 20,000 euros to the family of a woman who was not diagnosed with lung cancer. The 56-year-old woman went to the health services up to 26 times in three months, was diagnosed with low back pain and was prescribed painkillers, according to ‘La Voz de Galicia’.
Lung cancer was not detected until an autopsy was performed and, despite the fact that the disease was in a terminal state, the judges have sentenced the health organization to pay 10,000 euros to the father and 5,000 to each of his children because “they did not enough tests were done.”
It all happened in 2015, between July and September, when the woman went to the doctor in Ponteareas. She complained of severe lower back pain and was prescribed some anti-inflammatories after diagnosing her with low back pain and summoning her for follow-up. Her visits were constant days later and she even went to the Vigo University Hospital Complex, where she underwent the only radiological test of the entire process, a spine X-ray.
The pain continued and the woman went to the traumatologist, to a multitude of medical consultations and four times to the emergency services in the following weeks. In the end, the patient died at her home and it was not until the autopsy that she discovered a lung tumor that she had metastasized to various organs.
Despite the fact that subsequent tests did not make it clear whether the lower back pain was a consequence of the tumor, the judges have considered that sufficient medical tests were not carried out, hence the sentence. They have also taken into account that the woman, a smoker for 30 years, had the disease in its terminal phase.
“The expectations that I had even though the existence of the tumor had been diagnosed in the month of July were very few,” say the judges. That is why compensation of 20,000 euros has been decided instead of the 80,000 requested by the plaintiffs.
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