The case of baby Mia who died at a San Antonio hospital

In June this year, during an outbreak of syncytial virus (a virus that mainly affects children under two years old), the health care network was particularly stressed by demand for winter viruses – the average total occupancy of pediatric intensive care beds was 93.5% : 92.7% in the public system and 95.5% in the private system – it is in this context that the case of Mía, a two-month-old baby who died because she could not be transferred to a pediatric hospital bed, occurred San Antonio Claudio Vicuña Hospitallocated in the Valparaiso area.

On Tuesday morning, five months after the incident, the baby’s parents filed a lawsuit over the baby’s death, with five people charged. “One of them is guilty of manslaughter because the severity of the crime of negligence fits that figure, while the other four are guilty of negligence under Article 491 of the Criminal Code, which is a special type of quasi-murder.” Health officials A crime committed,” Epiro San Martín, the lawyer representing the family, said today.

Mia died of pneumonia on Tuesday, June 6, at a San Antonio hospital because she was unable to be transferred to a health care provider with a pediatric ICU bed: According to reports at the time, The health network had no beds in the region, Rancagua or Santiago, so the only option was to transfer her to the regional hospital in Arica, more than two thousand kilometers away.

According to her parents at the time, over that weekend they noticed their daughter had an unusual cough and decided to go to the hospital, where she was admitted on Saturday, June 3.

“We decided to take our baby away because she had a cough and nothing more serious. We took her away on Saturday and when they did the same thing to our baby she got worse until she passed away. In the report, the bronchitis turned into pneumonia when she was admitted to have contracted syncytial virus. “Father Nicholas Olivares told the media at the time.

During his stay at the medical facility, the infant shared a room with two other children hospitalized with syncytial virus. According to her father, this damaged and ultimately worsened Mia’s health.

The virus caused the two-month-old to develop pneumonia, and by Sunday her condition was severe enough that she needed to be admitted to the intensive care unit, but there were no more ICU beds in the hospital. Given the situation, the local health department started a transport procedure for the minor, but the only available bed was in Arica, so the baby ended up dying in the medical center.

Regarding the case, Fernando Araos, then undersecretary of the health network, assured that the pediatric team at the San Antonio hospital “completed all work and all interventions for critically ill patients,” and furthermore, authorities said Every effort was made to find a place in a private center in the area, but without success.

Questions about the case began to escalate immediately after news of the baby’s death broke, with Health Minister Ximena Aguilera being consulted about the management and conversion of beds, particularly because Clinics at Clínica Las Condes (CLC) said they had not yet been contacted to find out if inpatient spaces were available. In light of this, the portfolio head said at the time that this was due to a ruling by the Auditor General’s Office that prevented the purchase of services from the agency.

In response, the Audit Office denied his claims and stated that there was no ruling in this regard, so the Ministry of Health rectified the situation, stating that it was an “involuntary confusion” and that “in effect the CLC was unable to sign” the contract with the state The two-year contract is the result of a declaration by the labor justice system that verified violations of workers’ rights. “

Deputy Minister Alaos has since acknowledged that the Las Condes clinic was not consulted regarding the availability of pediatric beds despite what it had previously said, which is why he stated A brief inquiry was ordered.

“We were able to verify that there was no record of the call to Clínica Las Condes. In view of this situation, I decided to take appropriate administrative measures to clarify the facts and reasons, with the aim of being able to clarify why the request was not made,” he said on June 13. At the same press conference, the deputy minister was asked who was responsible for the situation. However, the authorities assured that they have conducted investigations to determine the said responsibility.

He said: “We decided to conduct a summary investigation to clarify the facts that this happened, and we also conducted an emergency administrative audit with the aim of reviewing the process 100% to identify and make improvements.” Fernando Araoz resigned as deputy minister of aid networks amid multiple questions about management.