The Superior Court of Justice of Castilla y León (TSJCyL) has condemned the Ministry of Health of the Junta de Castilla y León and its insurer, Relyens, to jointly pay 28,000 euros to a patient for a violation of the 'lex artis' during a laparoscopic cholecystectomy performed at the Hospital Complex of Ávila.
The ruling nullifies the dismissal by administrative silence of the claim for patrimonial liability processed before the regional Administration and partially upholds the contentious appeal filed by the patient, according to information provided by the Press Office of the TSJCyL and reported by Europa Press.
According to the details provided by the Administrative-Contentious Chamber, the affected individual underwent a scheduled procedure for the removal of the gallbladder on June 15, 2023. The next day, he had to be re-operated urgently after suffering a severe clinical deterioration caused by the perforation of a loop of the small intestine.
The court considers it proven that the cause of this perforation was the inadvertent suture of the jejunal loop when placing or closing the incision of the supraumbilical trocar in the first operation, performed under direct vision.
As a consequence of this complication, the patient developed a fecaloid peritonitis that required the resection of 25 centimeters of jejunum and led to his admission to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU), where he remained until August 21, 2023, suffering from septic shock and various associated pathologies.
The TSJCyL emphasizes that the mere existence of the informed consent document does not exempt the Administration from liability, since this instrument of good practice does not protect against incorrect medical execution in maneuvers performed under direct vision.
On the other hand, the Chamber dismisses that there was a delay in diagnosis or loss of opportunity in detecting the postoperative complication. The judges understand that the medical response to identify and resolve the perforation was quick and appropriate, as it occurred within 24 hours and after the necessary analytical and radiodiagnostic tests were conducted before proceeding to the second surgery.
To quantify the compensation at 28,000 euros, the court refers in an indicative manner to the traffic accident scale, assessing the psychophysical and aesthetic sequelae, the surgical interventions, as well as the days of hospitalization and recovery.
In addition, the resolution discounts from the days of detriment the 45 days considered as the standard recovery period for the initial cholecystectomy and excludes from the calculation the pre-existing pathologies that the patient already had before the now questioned healthcare assistance.