A woman claims compensation from the Basque Health Service-Osakidetza for having discharged her after going to the hospital with contractions. The woman points out that she ended up giving birth two hours later, in the doorway of her house, just as she was trying to return to the hospital. From the Department of Health of the Basque Government they indicate that the protocol was strictly complied with and that she was not admitted because she was not dilated by four centimeters, the minimum to be admitted, but by just over two centimeters. They also point out that precipitous deliveries like this represent less than 3%.
The 25-year-old mother, who had already been a mother four years ago, went to the Basurto hospital in Bilbao at dawn on January 4, in the 38th week of pregnancy, feeling that she had “strong and continuous” contractions every two or three minutes. , and suspect that she was in labor, according to the complaint registered by the woman, represented by the Gómez Menchaca law firm.
She arrived at the hospital around 2:30 a.m., where the cardiotocogram, which measures the fetal heart rate and uterine contractions, was placed for half an hour.
Afterwards, they kept her under observation for two more hours, but without monitoring, and the patient noticed “how the contractions were increasing in cadence and intensity, which requires that she be examined” by a gynecologist.
The specialist examined him at 5:00 a.m. and, after an ultrasound, discharged him “because he understood that the dilation corresponded to 2 or 3 centimeters.” At that time, the complaint explains, the mother “had contractions every minute,” but she was not monitored again.
Upon arriving at the home in the Biscayan town of Lemoa around 6:00 a.m., the woman was unable to rest and began to bleed. She then decided to return to the hospital, for which she requested the help of her brother. However, the labor was precipitated then and she had to give birth right there with the help of her brother, who called the emergency telephone number 112 at 7:15 a.m.
The woman denounces that three days after the birth the newborn had to be admitted to the ICU with bronchiolitis, “undoubtedly caused by the cold” that had happened in the portal after her birth, and had to be admitted for 13 days.
The mother has denounced “the moral and psychological impact of being neglected and giving birth to her daughter in the doorway”, and has reproached Osakidetza for not having listened to her when she explained that she had contractions every minute and “for not having taken the slightest precaution”. to monitor her before discharge.
The woman claims compensation for damages of about 60,000 euros from the Basque Health Service, in response to this moral and psychological damage and also for the healing process of the newborn, due to the “deficient” care that both received.
