The victim, admitted to the hospital at 10 a.m., had not been taken care of by the emergency medical team until 8:30 p.m. She died two days later.
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The Bordeaux University Hospital was ordered on Tuesday June 21 to compensate the family of a patient who died in 2018 after waiting more than ten hours to be transferred to intensive care, according to a judgment of the administrative court consulted by AFP on Friday June 24.
The 48-year-old patient, suffering from a rare inflammatory syndrome, had been admitted for the first time to the emergency room of the Bordeaux University Hospital after feeling unwell on February 28, 2018. She was then diagnosed with right pneumonia and prescribed antibiotic treatment. She was then admitted again on March 8 at 10 a.m. to the University Hospital, with fever and low blood pressure, before her condition worsened and the Samu was alerted at 12:30 p.m. to transfer her to another hospital in the CHU. The emergency medical team arrived at 8:30 p.m., before transferring her to intensive care where she died two days later from acute respiratory distress syndrome.
For the court, “the delay in taking charge of the intensive care unit”which follows from “the underestimation of the seriousness of the state of health” of the patient, had caused her a loss of chance of survival of around 50%. The court ordered the CHU to pay 47,378 euros to the patient’s estate and heirs for their damages. During the hearing, the CHU defense asserted that the care of the patient was “according to the rules of the art”.