For the death of their three-month-old daughter, killed by a bacterial infection while she was hospitalized at the Santissima Trinità Hospital in 2003, the newborn's parents and grandparents have now, 23 years later, received compensation of €880,000. After a series of vicissitudes, the civil proceedings began in 2019 before Cagliari Court Judge Giorgio Latti, who found the hospital liable for the septic shock caused by Klebsiella pneumoniae, which the baby contracted while hospitalized in the Prenatal Intensive Care Unit of the Local Health Authority (ASL 8).
The procedure
The newborn's family was represented in the latest proceedings by lawyers Alessio Corpino and Barbara Murgia, while the ATS, Sardinia's Health Authority, was represented by Carlo Carboni. According to the reconstruction of the case, the little girl's family sued the Is Mirrionis hospital following the newborn's death on July 29, 2003, when she was three months old. The newborn had been admitted to the pediatric ward of Brotzu Hospital on July 15 because she was feeling ill: there, doctors diagnosed her with "hypertrophic pyloric stenosis." According to her medical records, her condition was good. Two days later, she was transferred to the pediatric surgery unit of Santissima Trinità Hospital, where she underwent surgery. During the operation, however, the duodenal mucosa was perforated (which was then sutured), but a week later symptoms of peritonitis appeared and the patient's clinical condition worsened, making a second operation necessary.
The death
She was transferred to intensive care, diagnosed with septic shock, and was found to have Klebsiella, a highly contagious bacterium that often causes hospital-acquired pneumonia. The criminal proceedings stemming from that death concluded with the doctor's acquittal. However, during the trial, it was speculated that, even if accidental, the hospital may have had some responsibility for the bacterial infection, which was considered highly aggressive. The defense team for Santissima Trinità argued that the infection the child contracted did not occur in the hospital, given that no other similar cases had occurred in the ward, and asked the judge to dismiss the claims for compensation.
