The Facts – Death, as reported the nation, took place on July 6, 2021, but the woman’s ordeal began in May when she was hospitalized for pneumonia. The lady remained hospitalized until 23 June when she was transferred to a social-health facility where she had to continue antibiotic therapy. The following day, the RSA doctor on duty prescribes her a tachypirine which is administered to her by the nurse despite the fact that she was allergic to paracetamol in the medical records.
The aggravation of his condition – From that moment on, the patient’s condition began to deteriorate until on 2 July she was taken back to the emergency room. Four days later she died. Doctors at the hospital had noted that there was a rash over much of her body suggesting “suspected Lyell’s syndrome”. The findings of the Public Prosecutor’s Office expert, however, did not indicate the cause of death in the syndrome which, however, should have been attributed to the patient’s general health conditions.
The report does not convince the investigating magistrate – The judge considered that there were several contradictions in the technical report, first of all the fact that the expert had not indicated which of the previous pathologies had caused the death of the woman whose health conditions were in any case “stationary” before taking tachypirine . In fact, according to the judge, despite the fact that the US drug agency (Fda) had written paracetamol among the triggering factors of Leyll’s syndrome, and that a study by the Ministry of Health highlighted the fact that the syndrome could prove lethal in patients suffering from other pathologies, the conclusion always remains the same: death from a previous pathology. Contradictions that led the investigating judge to refer the documents to the Public Prosecutor’s Office and not to order the archiving even against the nurse who was indeed a “mere executor of the doctor’s orders”, she writes, but she was sufficiently trained to read a medical record .