Alex Trelinski
TWO doctors have been convicted of reckless homicide after an eight-year-old boy from Petrer in Alicante province died from peritonitis in 2020.
The youngster named Aitor went to the ER five times in four days at the Petrer Health Centre and Elda Hospital.
Alicante’s Criminal Court found the medics to be grossly negligent and guilty of malpractice.
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The Petrer health centre doctor was given a one-year jail term and banned from practising medicine for three years.
The pediatrician at Elda General Hospital received a two-year prison sentence and a six-month ban.
The Alicante judge also awarded compensation worth around €145,000 to Aitor’s relatives which will be paid by insurers Berkshire Hathaway on behalf of the Valencian Health Ministry.
The verdicts and sentences can be appealed.
Aitor died in October 2020 as a result of complications arising from acute appendicitis that, according to the court, were not detected and that his death could have been avoided if the medical response had been different.
Errors, the court said, included not taking ultrasound and blood tests in addition to measuring blood pressure and his heart during a series of ER visits.
The court ruling stated: “The doctors did not diagnose acute appendicitis in the minor, which led to an infection in the digestive tract originating in the cecum and which evolved into peritonitis with complications that led to his death.”
The trial heard from forensic doctors and also an independent medical expert.
Another witness told the court what she saw in the Elda Hospital ER.
“When I arrived I saw the boy in a wheelchair, who was writhing in pain.”
“The child was sick, sick, he was holding his abdomen and complaining,” she continued.
