Costa News Spain Breaking News | English News in Spain.
Wednesday, 5 March 2025, 14:58
The High Court of Justice of the Canary Islands ruled that the local health services must pay 352,479 euro plus legal interests to the couple whose twin daughters died in September 2018 from a serious infection due to medical negligence.
According to the ruling of the court, the medical intervention on the pregnant woman was not performed in accordance with the required minimum standards. The court ruled that the intervention was performed without the minimum hygienic standards required.
The woman was admitted to hospital on 27 August 2018 for a checkup because of her multiple high-risk pregnancy. She was 32 years old at the time and 25 weeks along. The babies were found to be fine at the time.
On the 4th of September, doctors found a dangerous accumulation of amniotic (amniotic) fluid. In response, the woman went to the maternity ward, where they removed two litres excess fluid. Four days later doctors discovered that the amniotic liquid and placental membrane had been infected. An emergency delivery was required. Both girls weighed one kilogram and 1.2 kilograms when they were born. Both girls died within 24 hrs. of septic stress caused by pathogens.
According to the court it was proved the infections that caused death were contracted by the pregnant woman during the twelve-day period she stayed in hospital up until her delivery. The court found that the amniotic liquid was extracted in a room which was neither an operating theater nor a place with the sterile conditions that are required under the aseptic protocol. It was also ruled that doctors had not obtained the consent of the patient, or of her husband, in spite of the obvious risks.
