AVelina Ferreira, 73 years old, disappeared on December 12th after escaping from Hospital São Francisco Xavier, in Lisbon, and her body was found more than two months later, last Monday, February 26th, in a high state of decomposition, next to the hospital establishment. However, this was not the first case of alleged negligence towards elderly people without a companion in hospital and, across the country, complaints received by the Health Regulatory Authority (ERS) about “accompaniment during the provision of care” now exceed those 220 this year alone.
Avelina Ferreira’s case became known in December and, at the time, the family explained that the elderly woman was “disoriented” and suffered from “dementia”, having been admitted alone to the hospital’s emergency room, as her husband was prevented from accessing the hospital. to follow. A petition has since been launched, which already has more than 9,500 signatures, with a view to “improving prevention and response to the disappearance of people with dementia”.
After confirming the death, the family decided to file a criminal complaint against certain individuals to determine responsibility and, on Thursday, IGAS confirmed the opening of an investigation into the case.
“By order of February 27, 2024, from the Inspector General of the General Inspection of Health Activities (IGAS), a process was initiated to clarify the circumstances in which the disappearance occurred, on December 12, 2023, of an elderly woman after leaving São Francisco Xavier Hospital”indicated an IGAS source in a response to the News by the Minute.
In December, an elderly woman died in the ambulance after being discharged
On Wednesday, it was reported that the Public Ministry (MP) is investigating the death of an elderly woman, aged 87, in the ambulance that transported her home, after being discharged from Hospital São Francisco Xavier, also in December.
According to SIC Notícias, which cites the victim’s granddaughter, the woman had Alzheimer’s, had been bedridden for two years, and had to be treated in that hospital unit after feeling unwell during the night.
The hospital opened an internal investigation into the case.
News at the Minute | 23:59 – 02/28/2024
A death occurred one day after the elderly woman was hospitalized. The granddaughter said that the family was informed that the woman was going to be transported by ambulance to the house, about five kilometers from the hospital, but, despite leaving the hospital at 6pm, she only arrived around 8pm.
“A firefighter rang the bell and asked us to go down to see if my grandmother’s normal condition was like this. We went down and came across a macabre scene. We saw my grandmother lying on a lucid patient, cold, purple, without any type of reaction. My grandmother was already stoned”, he said, adding that the death was declared 20 minutes later.
To the News by the Minutethe hospital confirmed that the current Board of Directors, which only took office at the beginning of this month, ordered the opening of an investigation process into the case.
More than 220 complaints made to ERS
More than 220 complaints have already been submitted to the Health Regulatory Authority about “monitoring during the provision of care”. As revealed by ERS to the News by the Minutethe number of complaints occurring in 2024 with this classification, to date, is 226 complaints regarding 52 healthcare providers. Of these, 145 complaints concern 32 public sector providers with inpatient care.
In turn, in 2023, the ERS received 994 complaints related to “monitoring during the provision of care” and in the previous year it received 1,018 complaints.
note that Not all of these complaints concern patients with dementia – as is the case of Avelina Ferreira – but it is situations of this kind that result in outcomes such as that of the elderly woman found dead two months after leaving the hospital by her own foot.
Regarding the specific case of Avelina Ferreira, the ERS stated that “as a result of the information flows about the disappearance of a user at the São Francisco Xavier Hospital, an administrative process was opened, to which a complaint was added as it related to the situation in question.” , and it is in the instruction phase, to define the regulatory action deemed necessary”.
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