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I had a feeling of discomfort, fatigue and aches throughout my body. But he didn’t have a fever or a cough either. He was only 46 years old and already suffered from a disease that attacks the muscles: Covid killed him in less than 72 hours from the start of symptoms. And now an investigation by the prosecutor must determine if he could have been saved. It is necessary to understand why in the Mauritius hospital, despite having reported positivity and was a patient “at risk”, because already being treated by an immunologist from that same hospital, they did not hospitalize him immediately and did not realize that the virus was already devastating. They sent him home to take care of himself while he waited to contact the GP. “Take acetaminophen,” they told him. The next day, the man returned to the hospital in an ambulance. His family never saw him again: he died a few hours after being admitted to intensive care.
A very rapid course of the disease: his last 36 hours of life at the mercy of the virus. What chance of salvation would he have had if he was intubated immediately? Has everything possible been done? These are the questions that the medical malpractice investigation entrusted to the prosecutor Francesco La Rosa must answer. In the coming days a technical consultation will be entrusted to a forensic doctor to answer the doubts raised by the family of the man, of Romanian origin, who filed a complaint requesting clarification. The hospital also set up a technical check for Friday to determine what happened. The management has already rebuilt all the steps: “It was not possible to foresee such a rapid deterioration,” explains Health Director Carmen Azzolina.
“At this time, the relatives, upset by their serious loss, prefer to maintain confidentiality and wait for the investigations to continue,” is the response of lawyer Stefano Fernando Mimmo, who presented the complaint to the Public Prosecutor for them.
It is Friday, October 30, when the patient arrives at the emergency room in Mauricio. He goes alone, shortly after 11, and indicates his symptoms: “I am positive for Covid,” he says. You are given a green code: samples are taken and your blood pressure is measured. He has no fever. Its young age suggests that the disease is not so aggressive. “Polymyalgia in Covid” is the diagnosis with which the man leaves the hospital at 7 in the afternoon to return home. The indication is to contact your GP. To do so, he would have to wait until Monday. Antipyretics and anti-inflammatories are prescribed to start fighting the virus. However, the next day, the situation does not improve. Already in the morning he is not well, enough to contact 118 for the first time, but the ambulance would not have loaded him because he is a Covid patient. A few more hours of waiting, then in the afternoon the man returns to the Mauriziano.
At 7 in the afternoon they took him to the red area of the emergency room, this time he also reported having a stomach ache and nausea. He spent the night of October 31 between visits and exams. At 8 a.m. on November 1, the anesthetist is called to assess his condition: saturation problems are evident, this time Covid shows its most striking symptoms, ventilation begins. At 2 o’clock in the afternoon the relatives are notified of the hospitalization in intensive care: the patient is “conscious and tired”, they write in the file. The man is intubated, but his parameters are deteriorating very rapidly. So much so that his heart stops, and his death is recorded at 5:40 pm According to the hospital it was not possible to predict that it would get worse so fast. The prosecutor wants to know if, in light of his conditions, it was possible to do more.
