«A story bordering on paradox». This is the definition used by the deputy general prosecutor of the Court of Auditors, Chiara Vetro, to define a case of medical malpractice handled by the Accounting Prosecutor's Office of Sardinia: a woman had asked to be subjected to tubal sterilization surgery which had to be carried out while she was under the irons for a cesarean section. Having given birth to a child, he had decided not to have any more. The further operation had been agreed with the doctors of the department, but had not been carried out. She had resumed a normal life as a couple, convinced that she could no longer procreate. Instead she got pregnant. And she was forced to terminate the pregnancy. For this reason he obtained "compensation for temporary disability and consequent psychophysical suffering".
The list
It is one of numerous proceedings coming from Sardinia listed in the chapter "Medical errors" of the report illustrated during the inauguration ceremony of the judicial year of the Court of Auditors. The island churns out disturbing cases. An ambulance crew who mistook acute cocaine intoxication for drunkenness. An overdose proved lethal, with the young man dying due to the "serious diagnostic error". And again: a family compensated for the damage suffered by a little girl at birth, the death of a woman due to haemorrhagic shock during uterine surgery.
On the island in 2023 (not only in the healthcare field) 123 liability judgments were activated. An enormous number, if we consider that in Lombardy, the second region, there were just 93. On this side of the Tyrrhenian Sea, the Accounting Prosecutor's Office hypothesizes revenue damages of 15,892,912.06 euros in one year.
Enrico Fresu
