Madrid (EFE) contrast at the Gregorio Marañón Hospital in 2018.
In a ruling dated February 23, the Administrative Litigation Chamber partially upheld the patient’s appeal against the dismissal of a previous lawsuit, in which she requested 400,000 euros from the Madrid Health Service (Sermas) for “damages and damages derived from the iatrogenic inoculation of the HIV virus”, according to eldiario.es.
According to the sentence, to which EFE has had access, the plaintiff underwent a CT test with contrast on September 18, 2018 after an intervention the previous June for ovarian carcinoma by laparoscopy in a private hospital and receiving chemotherapy.
After testing positive for HIV the following December, and filing a claim with the Community of Madrid, the response from the Health Inspectorate was that “the patient suffered an HIV infection that has not been causally related to the care received at the Hospital General Universitario Gregorio Marañón (HGUGM)”, and that also “the evolution has been satisfactory and the viral load became undetectable”.
Likewise, “it cannot be ruled out that the HIV infection is related to her activity as a dentist or to the care received in private centers.”
The patient had “a negative test for HIV” in July
However, an expert medical report presented by the plaintiff’s defense has concluded that this patient “suffered a contagion during the different therapeutic and surgical medical acts carried out at the Gregorio Marañón Hospital”, since in July 2018 the patient had “a Negative test for HIV.
In addition, this report ensures that the results “of the viral load and the CD4 lymphocyte count, place them in the first part of the evolution of the infection. Making hospital contagion much more likely”, and ruling out the suspicion of infection transmitted by transfusion.
Three HIV-positive patients one day prior to the TAC
Given that between August and November 2018, five hepatitis C virus (HCV) infections had been recorded during CT tests with contrast carried out consecutively on the same day at the Gregorio Marañón, analytical tests were requested from all patients who underwent to a CT scan with contrast on September 17 and 18, 2018.
The result alerted that “three HIV-positive patients” had been detected, one the day before the plaintiff’s TAC and another the same day, which, according to the expert report, “are more likely to have been the source of contagion” and, consequently, “the direct cause” would be “in the assistance provided at the Gregorio Marañón Hospital.”
For this reason, and although a report from the hospital’s Preventive Medicine Service indicated that none of these patients coincided “in the same room and shift” as the affected one, “the recognition of failures in work procedures (which determined the outbreak of contagion of hepatitis C) lead to consider plausible the hypothesis that the plaintiff was infected as a result of this test”, according to the sentence.
“It is appropriate to partially uphold the contentious-administrative appeal filed against the dismissal” of the claim for an amount of 400,000 euros for “hospital infection of HIV and the cause of this disease during the care received at the Gregorio Marañón Hospital, and compensation of 150,000 euros.