A girl dies of peritonitis in Valencia after going to the emergency room three times and not being diagnosed

A photo from a few years ago of Enma, the deceased girl, with her parents, Pedro and Beatriz, on the ecological urn that keeps the minor's ashes, in an image provided by the family.

Enma Martínez Gascó died last Monday morning at the Clinical Hospital of Valencia.

She was 12 years old.

The girl had been experiencing severe abdominal pain for a week, accompanied by vomiting and fever.

She died of purulent peritonitis, which led to an infection in her blood, according to what her father, Pedro Martínez, was told from the health center.

Previously, the parents took the minor three times to the doctor, twice to the Viver emergency center, located three kilometers from her town, Jérica, in the interior of Castellón, and once to the reference hospital in the area, in Sagunto, 42 kilometers.

In all cases, the doctors did not detect any serious ailment, they attributed the pain perhaps to a stomach virus or to the girl's first rule and sent her home.

They did not do a blood test or an ultrasound scan that, most likely, would have detected the pathology, despite the fact that the mother insisted that it could be an appendicitis (which can lead to peritonitis) due to family precedents, according to her the father told this newspaper in a telephone conversation held this Thursday.

The parents plan to file a complaint against the Administration because they consider that there has been medical negligence.

Sources from the Valencian Ministry of Health regretted this Thursday "deeply what happened", they made themselves available to the family and assured that "everything that has happened will be analyzed".

They cannot give more information about the case until they collect all the data, they added.

Jérica, with 1,550 inhabitants, declared Monday a day of official mourning for the death of the little girl, whose family is well known in this mountainous town, 73 kilometers from Valencia.

Her father is a socialist councilor in the City Council governed by the PP and her mother, Beatriz, is the municipal tobacconist who multiplies the population in summer.

Both, 48 years old, are very hurt, but try to maintain calm and fight despair and anger.

But they want to know what happened to her little girl and above all they want "that it never happen to anyone again," says the father.

"Enma she played soccer, she was festive, affectionate, full of vitality, she went with her two brothers [of her 17 and 22 years] and she knew the whole world," he adds.

Enma's parents, Pedro Martínez and Beatriz Gascó, in a recent image provided by the couple.

The parents agree to list the facts: On Sunday, January 29, Enma begins to feel bad, with abdominal pain, vomiting, diarrhea and fever (38.5).

Her mother took her to the Viver emergency center.

There, the doctor on duty does not detect a serious problem.

“My wife asked if she could have appendicitis since my family has suffered from it.

The doctor told her that she didn't think it was that, that she couldn't even walk, that it could be ovarian pain, that her first period was going to come down, or a stomach virus, ”Pedro explains.

The girl does not recover, she can barely sleep from the pain.

And on Thursday, February 2, the mother returns with the girl to the doctor in Viver.

Her father was on a business trip to Barcelona.

There is another doctor on duty, who repeats a little the same thing that her partner had already told him, that it could be a virus.

He did nothing, the parents point out.

They return home.

“When I return home on Friday and see the girl's face... I couldn't even walk upright.

On Saturday morning at 11:30 I take her to the hospital," says the father, referring to the reference hospital in the area, located in Sagunto, colloquially called Mini Fe. "We stayed there until five in the late.

They did a urine analysis of her and listened to her belly, they saw her white tongue, but little else of her.

They must have seen that the urinalysis was normal and we went home”, continues Pedro.

On Sunday, February 5, Enma is worse.

“She didn't even have the strength to leave the house.

The girl lost consciousness, fainted.

We went to the Viver Emergency Center because it was the fastest.

She went into cardiorespiratory arrest, they used a defibrillator.

They called SAMU and it arrived in 12 minutes.

They managed to stabilize her and took her down to the Clínico de Valencia [hospital].

The entire pediatric medical team was waiting there to operate on her.

The girl had a stop again, they tried to revive her for two hours.

She passed away at two in the morning, ”says her father.

The cause of her death, according to what they told her at the hospital, "is purulent peritonitis", with a blood infection that can cause multiple organ failure.

"How can it be that after going to the doctor three times with the girl exhausted, they are not able to pass on the ultrasound machine or do a blood test," laments Martínez.

He is also dismayed because he says that this Thursday they have not given him the report from his daughter that he requested in the Viver center.

Background

Two medical sources consulted are very prudent because they do not know the case and, therefore, cannot make any judgment.

They only point out from their clinical practice that a blood test and an ultrasound can detect an alteration due to appendicitis or peritonitis.

Peritonitis is a serious condition that begins in the abdomen that occurs when the thin layer of tissue that lines the inside of the abdomen becomes inflamed.

Appendicitis is an inflammation of the appendix.

Peritonitis can be generated by a complication of appendicitis

In November 2020, eight-year-old Aitor died of peritonitis at the Elda hospital (Alicante) without a diagnosis after having gone to the emergency room five times in four days.

The autopsy determined that the cause was peritonitis.

The family denounced that despite the minor's severe stomach pains, only a urine analysis had been performed on him and he had been given medication to stop vomiting.

The Court of First Instance and Instruction Number 3 of Elda is investigating the case.