Intern who filed the complaint participated in more than 180 surgeries
The intern doctor who exposed malpractice at Faro Hospital said in court this Tuesday that, in the first three months of her internship, she participated in more than 180 surgeries, mostly as an assistant, but also as the main surgeon.
Diana Pereira, who this Tuesday gave statements as part of the civil proceedings taking place at the Faro Court, is being tried for defamation after reporting 11 cases of alleged surgical malpractice at Faro Hospital in 2023.
In court, the doctor reported that, in addition to many small interventions, in just one month of training, she performed nine laparoscopic appendectomies (removal of the appendix using a minimally invasive surgical technique), including on children and as the main surgeon, almost always accompanied by her supervisor, Pedro Henriques.
Details of alleged malpractice cases at Faro Hospital reported by an intern doctor
“It was in Portimão [the hospital where she was transferred after having requested suspension from her duties in Faro] that I began to notice that I was lacking basic [knowledge] that I should have been taught first, long before I performed laparoscopic surgeries,” she said.
Diana Pereira described feeling “nervous and afraid” of not being able to perform certain steps of the surgeries well, complaining about the responsibility she had in such a short period of training, which ultimately led her to ask for a new supervisor.
The doctor stated that she began to question Pedro Henriques's competence as a supervisor in the first few weeks of her internship, when what she saw happening in the operating room did not correspond to the educational videos she watched as she prepared for surgeries.
The defendant admitted in court that she had reached a point of “exhaustion” after witnessing several cases of alleged bad practices on his part, feeling that she could no longer “comply” with those situations, as this made her an accomplice, and ended up filing a complaint with the Judiciary Police.
Also heard in court, surgeon Manuel Parreira, who was part of Diana Pereira's team, described Pedro Henriques, who had been his intern, as a doctor who "needed support from a more specialized person when there were more complicated interventions."
Acknowledging that there had been some complaints about the surgeon's clinical practice, Manuel Parreira admitted that he perceived that there were more new interventions after surgeries performed by Pedro Henriques — compared to other surgeons — since, in these cases, complications "were more frequent."
"It was discussed within the team, and we tried to improve things. [Among the surgeons] we said that the case could have been handled differently, with fewer complications. There were complications that were avoidable, that's the idea I was left with," the surgeon stated.
The clinical director of the former Algarve Hospital and University Center (CHUA) at the time of the events, Horácio Guerreiro, claimed in court that he never thought that Diana Pereira had the intention of harming the supervisor, saying, however, that he thought that she “might not be judging well”.
In this sense, and for having questioned the “sensibility” of Diana Pereira’s act of denunciation, Horácio Guerreiro made a request to the Public Health Department for her to be subjected to a psychiatric evaluation, which did not happen.
The defamation lawsuit against Diana Pereira was filed by Gildásio Martins dos Santos, director of the Surgery department at the time of the events, who is seeking 172,000 euros in compensation and accuses the intern of having "tarnished his good name and reputation."
Medical intern who exposed medical malpractice in Faro resigns from Portimão Hospital
The complaint covered 11 cases, with three of the patients targeted by the allegedly incorrect surgical procedures ending up dying, while the rest suffered bodily injuries associated with alleged medical errors, including accidental castration, loss of kidneys or the need for a colostomy for the rest of their lives.
The closing arguments of the case are scheduled for next Tuesday at 1:45 pm.
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