A 60-year-old man died after waiting 6 hours for an ambulance at the 24hr Emergency Centre of Vila Real de Santo António.
The family believes that the wrong diagnosis led to the patient's death and that the requested transport to another hospital should have been done as a matter of urgency. The patient had kidney failure, abdominal pain and lack of oxygen.
The victim initially attended another health centre but had a cough, so apparently was referred to the Vila Real Emergency Centre to carry out a screening test for Covid-19.
According to a local newspaper, “the victim's son, due to the lack of assistance, ended up calling INEM, who arrived at the scene 8 minutes later. Unfortunately, the patient, who had kidney failure, abdominal pain and lack of oxygen and had been admitted to the emergency department 6 hours earlier, was already in cardiorespiratory arrest”.
A complaint has already been filed with the Public Ministry and the Centro Hospitalar do Algarve.
Our sincere condolences to friends and family of the gentleman.
Original source article available in Portuguese at http://postal.pt/
