Hospital death highlights accountability in the north
By Simon Bahceli
Published on May 17, 2012
THE DEATH of a 37-year-old Nicosia man undergoing a routine hernia operation in the north’s ‘state’ hospital in Nicosia has once again called into question the accountability of the north’s public health service.
Musa Ersusoy died on Monday evening, eight days after going into a coma during a routine operation to remove a hernia. According to his family, Ersusoy slipped into the coma when he was deprived of oxygen while undergoing surgery allegedly because medical staff at the hospital wrongly inserted an oxygen pipe.
Members of Ersusoy’s family were quoted in newspapers in the north saying they were “shocked and devastated that such a mistake can happen in this day and age”.
“We took him to hospital in fine health and come away with his dead body,” one paper quoted a family member saying. The paper added that the family would “seek justice” and that “someone must be punished for this”.
But finding justice may not be easy, as head of the Patient’s Rights Association and lawyer Emete Imge told the Cyprus Mail yesterday.
“The last time someone successfully sued a doctor, the dead person’s children had grown into adults before they received anything”.
According to Imge, victims of malpractice or negligence in the north have little or no recourse to legal compensation.
“You can complain to the physicians association and they will compile a report and have the power to strike doctors off the list. An alternative route is to complain to the ‘health ministry’,” Imge explained.
“But neither routes will get you anywhere,” she said, adding that until laws specifically tailored to address the rights of hospital patients were created, there was little chance of Ersusoy’s family getting any form of compensation from the ‘state’.
The fact that Ersusoy was buried yesterday will also have a grounding on his family’s chance of gaining justice if a genuine mistake has been made. According to Imge, unless an autopsy is carried out one cannot pursue the options of complaining to the physicians association or the health ‘ministry.’
“Unfortunately, most families want to see their dead buried as quickly as possible, thinking that their beloved has suffered enough,” Imge explained.
As well as highlighting deficiencies in the legal apparatus surrounding health care in the north, Imge said health provision by ‘state’-run services in the north was plagued by shortages of both staff and medicine.
“Doctors ideally see around 20 patients per day, each for at least 20 minutes per session. Here they see around 40 patients per day, and barely have the time to look them in the face,” Imge said.
http://www.cyprus-mail.com/cyprus/hospi ... h/20120517
A hernia?
..and..
Tourist dies as insurance company refuses to act
By Simon Bahceli
Published on May 17, 2012
INACTION by an Irish insurance company may have partially led to the death yesterday of 77-year-old British holidaymaker Peter Pierce in northern Nicosia’s ‘state’ hospital, Pierce’s fiancé has claimed.
Yorkshire resident Pierce was admitted to the ‘state’ hospital in Kyrenia a week ago suffering from gastroenteritis after failing to respond to a course of antibiotics prescribed to him by a local doctor. Yesterday he died, having suffered three cardiac arrests, septic shock and renal failure, his fiancé Glenys Thorton told the Cyprus Mail.
“As soon as he was admitted to hospital and was put on a drip, I informed the insurers,” Thornton said yesterday, adding that according to the policy her fiancé had taken out with Insure and Go, he should have been sent for private health care as soon as he was taken ill.
Thornton believes the failure of Insure and Go, and Mapfre Assistance Ireland, the company that handles Insure and Go’s overseas medical claims, to respond to her call for assistance could have cost her fiancé his life.
“Their deliberation on whether to transfer him caused the hospital to delay treatment that might have saved his life. If they had acted promptly, he would have gone to private hospital where he could have at least been able to communicate with the staff,” Thornton said. She added that doctors at the Turkish Cypriot ‘state’ hospital had been “extremely busy and thin on the ground”.
When by last Friday Pierce’s health had deteriorated further, he was transferred to the Nicosia ‘state’ hospital, at which point Thornton said she again called the company.
“They said they had a local representative in the area and that we would be contacted. No one ever did.
“At one point the representative in Ireland told me it was not their fault if we chose to take a holiday in a country with poor medical care,” Thornton added.
Yesterday doctors told Thornton her fiancé had suffered a third cardiac arrest and that he’d gone into septic shock, and that they were having trouble keeping him hydrated.
“At 3.30 this afternoon the insurers rang me back and told me that according to their report Peter couldn’t be moved. I responded that very soon moving him would not be a problem because he’d soon be dead,” Thornton said.
Pierce’s fiancé told the Mail she did not believe doctors in the north had misdiagnosed the dead man. However, she did say, “an opportunity might have been missed earlier”.
“Once we were in Nicosia, I have no criticism of the doctors there,” she said.
Yesterday, Thornton, who was to return to the UK last Saturday, was still waiting for a response from Insure and Go and Mapfre Assistance Ireland.
“They have not even secured my room at the hotel or rearranged my flight. They told me I had to do that myself,” she said.
The Cyprus Mail also contacted Mapfre Assistance Ireland and asked them to comment on Pierce’s death. The company promised to call back but had not done so by late last night.
http://www.cyprus-mail.com/cyprus/touri ... t/20120517
Gastroenteritis?
