Woman sues hospitals for near-fatal misdiagnosis

A  young woman has filed a judicial protest against St. James and Mater Dei Hospitals and the Minister for Energy and Health, alleging that negligence on their part almost caused her death.

The protest, signed by lawyer Stefano Filletti, claims that the woman had been negligently misdiagnosed as suffering from back pain, when she was in fact suffering from septic shock –a life-threatening infection, normally caused by bacteria. Claiming that the situation “could have easily been avoided by the administration of the correct medicines, had she been examined diligently and correctly” the protest appeals to the addressees to compensate her for the damages she suffered.

The woman, 20-year-old Lojin Brijieh is alleging that last October she had visited the emergency department at Mater Dei hospital complaining of severe back pain. Such was the severity of the pain and the length of the wait to be seen by a doctor that at one point, the woman decided to go to private healthcare provider St. James Hospital, instead.

After a cursory examination, the woman says that a doctor there prescribed her an anti-inflammatory painkiller and sent her on her way. After four days, however, the pain returned with even greater intensity than before.

The woman then called at Mater Dei Hospital once more, again being sent home without treatment, this time after four doctors from the Accident and Emergency department told her that she was simply suffering from a muscle spasm.

However, barely 24 hours later, the woman fell unconscious and had to be rushed into intensive care. Doctors there found her to be suffering from septic shock and had to be operated on twice.

The woman has not yet fully recovered and is facing the prospect of further surgery to fix the damage caused, however several requests for copies of her medical records were not replied to. A subsequent communication from her lawyer to the defendants also went unanswered.