Ex-prisoner of Custóias prison was diagnosed with sprain and joint pain for several days, but ended up being amputated. Justice gave him reason and condemned hospital and prison to compensation.
The Pedro Hispano Hospital in Porto and Custóias prison were ordered to pay compensation of 50,000 euros to a former inmate. The 28-year-old man was forced to amputate a leg after a misdiagnosis.
The diagnosis referred only to a sprained right ankle, diagnosed a few hours after he fell during a basketball game with other inmates in late 2009.
Observed at the prison's medical facility, he received ice, medication, and rest, but the days went by and the pain and swelling continued.
Fifteen days later, the complaints were so bad that he was taken to the emergency room of the Local Health Unit of Matosinhos, which belongs to the Pedro Hispano Hospital, where he was submitted to an X-ray. The diagnosis reported only joint pain.
Six days later, another visit to the same hospital and no change in the medical evaluation and treatment.
Dissatisfied and no longer able to feel his toes, he asked to be seen in another hospital, São João. Then, almost a month later, the worst scenario was confirmed: "arteriosclerosis of native arteries of the extremities, not specified", which required emergency surgery.
The 28-year-old man had part of his right leg amputated.
Outraged that there was negligence, he went to court against the Pedro Hispano Hospital and the Custóias prison. The courts ruled in his favor, according to the decision of the Administrative and Fiscal Court of Porto.
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