This is how the eyes of a father capture the terrifying moment in which his son's life seems to be in danger.

March 4, 2021. Emergency room at the Torrejón University Hospital, in the Community of Madrid.

The 10-year-old boy arrives with a broken arm.

The doctors treat him after asking him to leave the room, according to the father's account.

Twenty minutes later, he finds him "in a bit of a weird pose."

Emitting “very strange noises”.

And all the alarms sound: it is discovered that the minor has a saturation of 40%.

That he has trouble breathing.

And that they have administered an excessive dose of ketamine in order to sedate him for the operation, for which he has to be transferred to the Niño Jesús pediatric ICU and remain admitted until March 6.

To compensate for the moral damage caused by that ruling,

"At the moment" the case has not been prosecuted, according to the Ministry of Health, which is directed by Enrique Ruiz-Escudero.

But no one would be surprised if it happened, because the regional lawyers periodically face litigation of this type.

Thus, between 2015 and 2020, the Community of Madrid has spent almost 25 million euros to pay for a property civil liability insurance policy for the Madrid health service (Sermas), according to the regional contracting portal.

In parallel, the bill for medical errors exceeded 34 million between 2015 and 2020, and shot up to over 40 during that period if administrative or transportation failures are included.

Behind these data there are dozens of broken lives that will never be the same again.

Lives like that of María —fictitious name—, who spent the entire summer of 2018 fighting apathy... until a phone call announced that the reason for her lack of energy was that she had contracted hepatitis C during a test routine in the Gregorio Marañón hospital (a TAC), like four other people.

Or like that of another patient who was left with an 85% disability when the stroke she suffered was confused with gastroenteritis.

These are statistically exceptional cases among the millions of medical acts carried out by the Madrid health service each year, but they have left an indelible mark on the lives of their protagonists.

The president of the Community of Madrid, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, accompanied by the Madrid Minister of Health, Enrique Ruiz Escudero. Juan Carlos Hidalgo (EFE)

That could be the case of the minor treated at the Torrejón hospital.

“A review of the medication administered for sedation is carried out, showing that the dose of ketamine charged for administration was 250 milligrams (7.8 milligrams/kilo), instead of the dose prescribed by the pediatrician on duty [which was 50 milligrams or 1.5 milligrams/kilo], due to an error in the preparation of the medication by the nursing staff, since the correct dilution of the medication had not been made”, reads a hospital report.

That is, a dose was prepared with 200 milligrams more than prescribed by the doctor, although it was not fully administered.

"Not 100% of the prepared dose was administered to the patient, since as is done in usual practice, it was administered progressively, until the desired sedative effect was achieved in the patient, which was achieved, according to the physician who performed the procedure, with approximately half of the dose”, specifies the document contributed to the investigation.

What the patient's family denounced is that an ideal dose for a 130-kilo adult was prepared for a 30-kilo child.

Request of 15,000 euros

For the health inspection there are no doubts, according to a report cited in the opinion of the regional legal commission: "An error has occurred in the preparation of the medicine called Ketamine, which led to an overdose of the medicine in the process of reducing a fracture of the radius with closed ulna”.

And for the legal advisory commission of the Community, an advisory body that ensures compliance with the Constitution, the Statute of Autonomy and the rest of the legal system, there is nothing to explain either to argue the origin of the compensation.

"It is evident and does not require further argumentative effort that the interested party does not have the legal obligation to bear the damage caused by this inadequate functioning of the health services, for which reason the claim for patrimonial responsibility must be recognized," he explains in an opinion signed this 20 March, and prepared after a request from the Minister of Health.

"The concern and anguish that ketamine overdose causes to a father and his underage son is unquestionable," he adds.

"It is appropriate to estimate the claim for patrimonial responsibility and recognize a global and updated compensation of 4,500 euros," he concludes, lowering the 15,000 euros of compensation for moral damages that the family of the affected minor claimed.

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