INEM comes to clarify case of death of a woman ventilated during the blackout

INEM issued a note on Friday to rectify information about the assistance provided to a ventilated user who would die last Monday, the day when the electricity failure occurred.

Quoting the VMER Relief entries of ULSLO – São Francisco Xavier Hospital and the Volunteer Firefighters of Belas, INEM discloses the chronology of the case, underlining the fact that the woman was already in cardiorespiratory arrest at the time of the arrival of the relief teams.

INEM’s Urgent Patient Orientation Center (CODE) received a call 112 at 3:52 pm to assist a female user, approximately 78, who was with breathing difficulty, with non-invasive ventilatory equipment with the discharged battery, in the locality of Agalva-Cacém ”, reads in the note.

After Codo’s clinical screening, the São Francisco Xavier VMER was called at 3:57 pm and an ambulance of the Volunteer Firefighters of Belas.

The firefighters were the first to arrive at 4:15 pm, having found the victim, « already in cardiorespiratory arrest (PCR), having immediately started basic life support maneuvers with external automatic defibrillation. »

The VMER team arrived at 4:20 pm and “continued the resuscitation maneuvers by applying advanced life support care”, but it was not possible to reverse the stop and the death was declared on site.

INEM underlines that it was a sick « with multiple comorbidities, including chronic respiratory failure under noninvasive ventilation. »

It also points out that on this day, April 28, INEM responded to 4,576 requests for help throughout the continental territory.

Finally, it said that it only learned of the case on Thursday, May 1st, by the media and ensures that the usual response was given and according to the procedures instituted in the CODO, ie “the activation of a basic life support and an advanced life support”.