Pedro Cañete, in an image of Christmas 2014 provided by the family, a month and a half before having surgery on his eyes and going completely blind.
Pedro Cañete Marín cannot see the faces of his grandchildren.
He will live with that pain forever.
At the beginning of 2015, he completely lost his sight and had to join ONCE to rebuild his life.
This 68-year-old from Córdoba, a former bank employee, underwent surgery at the Reina Sofía Hospital in Córdoba almost eight years ago.
He was operated on for retinal detachment in both eyes and he was treated with a toxic medication that caused him total and irreversible blindness.
The judges have now sentenced Allianz, the insurer of the German pharmaceutical Alamedics, manufacturer of the defective medical device, to pay compensation of 534,601 euros plus default interest (about 640,000 euros) for the damage caused.
"The pain that they have caused my father cannot be repaired," says his son, Miguel Cañete.
“His life has been destroyed.
They will not be able to compensate for that in any way.
The only thing we want is to close this stage and for this anguish of trials and more trials to end ”.
Ala Octa is the brand of a perfluorooctane that the firm Alamedics distributed for ophthalmological treatments in retinal surgery.
Some batches in poor condition, with a high degree of toxicity, caused fatal sequelae in more than a hundred patients to whom the medicine was applied.
The Spanish Agency for Medicines and Health Products (Aemps) ordered in June 2015 the cessation of the use and marketing of this eye drop after the "adverse incidents" that had been verified due to its use in at least 116 patients, intervened in 28 health centers Spaniards from 13 autonomous communities.
"All of them lost sight in the operated eye," says lawyer Carlos Gómez Menchaca, head of the office that represents Pedro Cañete in court: "Pedro's case is especially dramatic,
because he was operated on in both eyes and became completely blind.
We do not understand Allianz's efforts to delay the payment of the compensation to which it has been sentenced”.
The Provincial Court of Madrid ruled on December 1 against Allianz, by dismissing his appeal against the resolution issued in February 2021 by a court of first instance in Madrid, which sentenced him to pay 534,601 euros plus interest to Cañete .
The sentence can be appealed in cassation before the Supreme Court.
The high court has already established doctrine on this matter.
In April 2022, he ruled on a similar lawsuit, raised by Adolfo Aguilera, blind in his left eye.
He declared the sentence to pay him 307,808 euros final, although this has not been satisfied eight months later, according to Gómez Menchaca.
“Allianz is trying to delay everything.
We have already spent more than 18,000 euros in lawsuits.
For many others it has not been profitable and they have decided to leave.
This uncertainty is what is affecting the victims the most.
It is what generates the most anxiety.
You pay and pay without knowing how everything will end.
You see yourself on a very hard road, with many uncertainties, with failures and disappointments”, explains Miguel Cañete.
His father, tells by phone from Malaga, "can no longer lead a normal life.
He has 0.05% vision.
He cannot see his grandchildren, he cannot go fishing... his freedom and autonomy have been 100% conditioned.
It makes me a lump in my throat".
The unfortunate trance that Pedro Cañete is experiencing began on February 3, 2015. That day he underwent surgery for a detached retina in one of his eyes.
Fifteen days later, without giving time to verify the result of the first intervention, they performed the same surgery on the other eye.
He no longer saw more.
Clinical findings confirmed that the cause of the blindness was the use of a defective batch of Ala Octa eye drops.
The judgment of the Madrid Court concludes that "there is no doubt that the Ala Octa perfluoroctane used in the two retinal interventions to which the plaintiff [Pedro Cañete] underwent caused the cell death of the retinal pigment tissue of both eyes given its toxicity.
Expert Panel
Between the end of 2014 and the beginning of 2015, most of the problems caused by the dispensing of defective Alamedics eye drops occurred.
The Medicines Agency created a panel of experts to evaluate all clinical incidents, which confirmed the "cytotoxic behavior" of the batches analyzed, and ordered their withdrawal from the market.
The damage was already done.
The Gómez Menchaca law firm, from Bilbao, assumed the defense of a large part of those affected.
They sued public health in the cases operated on in their hospitals (approximately 40% of the total) and managed to get the autonomous communities to financially compensate the damages.
On the other hand, the patients treated in private clinics took another legal path.
They denounced the Allianz company, as insurer of the pharmaceutical company that manufactured the toxic product: “Most of the cases referred to public health have been paid.
On the other hand, the rest, despite having favorable rulings, are waiting for the insurer to pay the amounts set by the courts.
We are going to have to demand the execution of those sentences.
There are still about 10 cases that are alive.”
The defense of Cañete, operated in a public center, opted in September 2018 to initiate a "direct action" through civil proceedings against the insurer, explains the lawyer Gómez Menchaca.
Miguel Cañete expresses his satisfaction that the Provincial Court of Madrid, the competent jurisdiction because the registered office of the defendant insurer is in the capital, has given "reason" to his father, who delegates all the statements to his son and prefers not be photographed.
Miguel laments that "Allianz insists on appealing and extending our suffering."
And he adds: “You have the feeling that they are going to get away with it and they are not going to pay.
They will go to the Supreme Court and no one guarantees that they will compensate the damage.
We are surprised that such a powerful insurer continues in its thirteen and does not comply with the sentences.
We have doubts as to whether justice is going to protect us from Allianz's attempts to ignore the sentence”.
Gómez Menchaca adds: “It is an obstinacy for not paying that is outside the law.
It is an unjustified delay that is adding more suffering to those affected.
It is a contempt for the victims and for justice”.
The youngest victim was 15 years old when he underwent surgery for a retinal detachment caused by hitting a goal while playing football.
The oldest was 95 years old.
The average amount of compensation received is around 65,000 euros.
In the case of Cañete, that amount is almost 10 times higher due to the seriousness of the injuries that have remained for life.
He hasn't been paid yet.
The Allianz group refers to its headquarters in Munich and has not responded to the requirements made by this newspaper.