Surprise, fear and misgivings still pervade the atmosphere in the Peñuelas residence, of the Aralia group, in Madrid where, on April 11, a resident strangled to death while tied to the bed.
The event was reported by El País this Tuesday and the account of the events indicates that the night shift workers had already begun their rounds with a bad omen. At first, after 03:00 in the morning, they found the victim, still stable, about to fall from the bed to the floor and with “the abdominal restraint near the neck.”
After reinstating her and adjusting her to a more natural and comfortable position, they continued with their rounds until, after three hours, they observed that the patient was once again out of position to the point that the restraint was oppressing her neck until she died.
The event was treated internally as a fatal accident since the victim’s family had authorized the use of restraints at the request of the medical team that recommended it due to the patient’s state of health. And despite the fact that other relatives suspected what happened, there was no complaint about what happened. Something that, as the aforementioned newspaper collects, is not so unusual given that “an indeterminate number of deaths frequently occur from restraints in residences in Spain, which is considered the developed country that most abuses restraints.”
Without any complaint, the Prosecutor’s Office acted ex officio investigating what happened. But before this tragic episode joined the list of incidents, the winning company -Aralia- was fined almost 25,000 euros by the Community of Madrid. An amount that can only be attributed to a serious infraction.
According to the same media, the reason for the fine is because the residence hid what happened from the authorities dependent on the Ministry of Social Affairs of the government chaired by Isabel Díaz Ayuso.
The Prosecutor’s Office will determine if, despite the medical recommendations and the consent of the family, there are indications of a crime, although what happened has put the debate on the suitability of the widespread use of this type of restraint in Spanish residences on the table once again. waiting for its use to be modified as stated in a circular from January 2022 that instructs prosecutors throughout Spain to verify that it is always done “provisionally”.
The document also warns that a “deviated use” of these elements can lead to administrative and even criminal sanctions as a guarantee to safeguard the dignity of the elderly.
Based on these rules, prosecutors have been demanding in the last year and a half the periodic submission of the list of restraints applied, type of restraint used, medical prescription, duration, controls carried out, required informed consent and a copy of the protocol for adopting restraints. mechanics of each residence
