Puerto Colombia hospital has been convicted of medical negligence

The Administrative Court of the Atlantic recently ruled on an appeal filed by the defense of José Ricardo Soto López, who died on June 6, 2015, condemning the Municipal Hospital of Puerto Colombia for failing to provide immediate medical care to the young man, 22 years of age, when he was admitted three days before the date of his death.

It should be remembered that this was a notorious case that attracted the public’s attention eight years ago due to the images of the security cameras of the population’s health center that showed an apparent pain of the law student, moments of disturbance of the order of some people accompanying him and a passive attitude of police officers and the medical staff of the hospital in question. That happened exactly on May 23, 2015.

José Ricardo Soto López died in the General Clinic of the North, after being in intensive care for 13 days in a coma. His death, family members said, was caused by a multisystem malfunction that affected his heart, liver, kidneys, a lung and the brain.

Then, as the days passed, the Institute of Legal Medicine confirmed that the death was due to malfunctions in various organs and was not the product of physical assault as initially stated. “It is concluded that the death was the result of seven organic failures. The most important: “acute myocardial infarction. Mode of death: Violent – ​​unspecified,” the diagnosis read.

As a result of what happened, the young man’s family engaged in a legal battle to clarify the strange circumstances surrounding his death: a complaint was filed with the prosecutor’s office for the crime of personal injury and manslaughter against unnamed persons and, on the other hand, from the administrative point of view, for the failures in the attention of the Municipal Hospital of Puerto Colombia.

In this sense, the plaintiff’s lawyer and also the brother of the victim, Miller Soto, explained to EL HERALDO that the decision of the Atlantic Administrative Court to condemn the hospital in Puerto Colombia “we consider it an act of justice, as it is confirmed that yes there was a failure in the service, that my brother was denied the opportunity to be properly cared for and that without that indifferent treatment the outcome would have been different”.

Overall, according to the lawyer, a penalty is imposed on the hospital and the payment of 300 (SMMLV) is ordered.

In addition, he said that “nothing in our family will fill the void that José Ricardo left us, but we are grateful because with this decision the court has prevented his death from going completely unpunished. In other words, as far as the responsibility of the state is concerned, we believe that justice has been done.”

On the other hand, he reiterated that the case has never progressed in criminal matters. “We deeply regret that, because there are still many questions that need to be answered; however, we understand the huge flaws of our system and as faithful believers we leave everything in the hands of God.”