Natalia Iocco
08/20/2021 6:00 AM
Clarín.com
Police
Updated 08/20/2021 6:00 AM
"I admitted her for a change in medication and
they returned her to me in a drawer,
" repeats María Cristina Mendoza (57) throughout the conversation.
He reviews, over and over again, his notes with hospitalizations, treatments and requests to the social work to care for his daughter in the middle of a pandemic that left her isolated.
Sol Milagros López is dead, she did not reach her 25th birthday or "stabilize in two weeks", as the doctors had promised.
María Cristina is a seamstress and lives in the La Juanita neighborhood of Laferrere (La Matanza), from where she traveled to visit her daughter in Pilar.
You are looking for answers, you want to know "why?"
and "who are responsible?"
of his death but, above all, he wants "no other boy is left without fulfilling his dreams."
Sol was the third of four children.
She did not have a firm diagnosis, although she
was under psychiatric treatment for bipolarity and a disorder that led her to take medication
.
Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the accompaniment and his treatments were complicated: virtual sessions with his psychiatrist, calls with his psychologist and changes of medication that his body did not tolerate.
Sol had been institutionalized on January 25.
He died on March 5.
"I had three hospitalization orders that were presented at IOMA, but I could not get any clinic that would give her a place due to the pandemic. My daughter
went from being a sports girl, full of dreams, to having motor problems
. They recommended me a therapeutic companion, occupational therapist and I don't know how many other things. But during the pandemic there was none of that, "Cristina tells
Clarín
.
The woman reviews the interventions, the different medications and the reactions they generated in her daughter's body.
The deterioration was growing and the order of the doctors was one: institutionalize it until it stabilized.
"Sol never stopped being assisted but the bureaucracy of the social works complicated her treatment a lot. The medication they gave her made her sick, she suffered, she told me: '
Mom is not me, I do not understand what is wrong with me,
' she did not respond. The body. As a mother, the last thing you want is to admit your child, but they told us it was the best, "explains Cristina.
Sol and his brothers, Jerónimo (16), Estrella (31) and Facundo (27).
And so it was, after many complaints, she managed to get IOMA, the social work that she inherited from Sol's father who had been a teacher in the province of Buenos Aires, to get her a place at the Estancia del Pilar clinic, where she was finally
admitted on the 25th of January.
Sol's family thought that the green, nature and animals were going to help her in her recovery.
They trusted.
"It was a whole month without knowing anything about my daughter. They did not respond to messages or emails. I could not communicate with her, contact was very difficult. When we spoke it was six minutes, 20 at most. Due to the quarantine, we could not to visit her, they would not allow me to approach her and I listened to her badly ", Cristina remembers.
Sol, along with her mom.
And he insists: "The last time we spoke, she told me that she was drooling, that she was sick, that she could not move. She was never neglected by her mother, I made sure that the doctors saw her, that she took her medication, to treat That she was okay.
I didn't leave her on the street, I left her in a health center where she was supposed to be treated
. "
On March 5, at midnight, Sol was found dead in the room of the Estancia del Pilar clinic.
According to the report that the doctors gave to the family, at 22 she was "sound asleep" after taking her medication.
Two hours later, when his roommate went to bed, he found her hanging with a sheet.
Sol had committed suicide.
Sol Milagros López with her mother Cristina Mendoza and her father, who died during quarantine due to the coronavirus pandemic in Argentina.
"That day a doctor on duty called me and told me that my daughter had died, that she had taken her own life. Since then I have asked myself:
what care did they have
? If you go to an institution, it is to be
cared
for because she She had her mother to protect her. My daughter did not want to kill herself. Who was in charge of her? ", Cristina despairs.
The investigation
The woman's questions led to an investigation by the Prosecutor's Office No. 1 of Pilar for "
investigation of causes of death
."
From March to this part, the case had practically no progress, not even the directors of the clinic or the personnel in charge at the time of death were summoned to testify.
But a few days ago an expertise aroused concern: "0.72 G / L of total reducing volatile substances (expressed as
ethyl alcohol
)
was detected
," the report reads.
"With the medication Solcito was taking and that degree of alcohol in his blood ... I am sure that without that he would never have killed himself. When we arrived, Sol's friends would not stop crying and they told me there were other cases , that other people died in that clinic and I want to know
who entered the alcohol
? Who gave it to them? What kind of care do they have? ", the woman warns.
In the health center they did not respond to
Clarín's
queries
.
In the Ministry of Health of the province of Buenos Aires they indicated that the control and inspections correspond to the Municipality of Pilar.
Estancia del Pilar would be enabled and with the certifications in order.
Meanwhile, the investigation continues.
"We understand that the responsibility of those who were in charge of Sol's treatment and specifically that of the health professionals who were in charge of his care that night should be investigated," Andrés Bonicalzi, the family's lawyer, told
Clarín.
.
As a representative of the individual victim, they will request the change of the legal classification to "
wrongful death
".
An avoidable death?
"We understand that
the death of the victim was avoidable
if the duty in charge had been fulfilled. Without the consumption of alcohol, we believe that Sol would be alive today, understanding that alcohol, and even more with the mixture of psychiatric medication, it operates as a reduction of the inhibitory brakes and of the plane of the preservation of the victim's reality ", says Bonicalzi.
Judicial sources informed this newspaper that "the case is in full investigation stage" and they almost ruled out that third parties may have participated in the death, that there is criminality or that it has been intentional homicide.
They also indicated that this Wednesday the expert who carried out the analysis to clarify the situation regarding alcohol consumption appeared to testify and that "he explained in his statement that there are other reasons that can react and mark this indicator."
Sol Milagros López (24) died at the Estancia del Pilar psychiatric clinic on March 5, 2021.
From what they inferred: "It does not necessarily have to have been due to alcohol intake, but there are different processes in the body that are measured in this way and could have led to this result.
They cannot assure us that this result is directly related to alcohol consumption
".
Although this expertise could generate some debates in the judicial file, the truth is that the investigation will continue to determine "if there was
any type of negligence or any malpractice in the process,
" they indicated.
The young woman's family aims to spread the story of Sol so that other relatives of victims who may have been institutionalized in this center can share their testimony and determine if there is a repeated mechanism in the care.
Sol wanted to be a Physical Education teacher and she liked doing crafts and painting.
Also plants and nature.
In his notebooks he wrote: "
Let go to move forward
."
Cristina reviews them, contemplates her dreams and says: "Like the death of Sol there are many. I know that I am risking my life, but
I want to know what happened to my daughter
. I am not going to be just another mother who is going to leave this world without knowing what they did with their daughter. "
GL - EMJ
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