TERNI – Eleven years after a fall in the emergency room, a nurse from Santa Maria di Terni was sentenced to pay almost 12 thousand euros in compensation. The patient, a 90-year-old woman, suffered a fracture of her left humerus after falling from the stretcher on February 8, 2013.
The accident and the legal proceedings
The story began when the elderly woman, who fainted in her home, was rescued by the 118 service and transported in code yellow to the emergency room of the Santa Maria hospital. After waiting four hours for a cardiologist consultation, the patient attempted to get off the stretcher without assistance, falling and fracturing her left humerus. Her fall had also caused abrasions to her head.
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Following the accident, the patient had requested compensation for damages from the hospital, triggering a civil trial which, in 2017, ended with the healthcare company being condemned to pay approximately 35 thousand euros to the woman’s heirs, died in the meantime from unrelated causes.
The condemnation of the nurse
The Court of Auditors of Umbria subsequently opened a case against three Santa Maria employees, accused of violating custody and supervision obligations. However, only the nurse involved was convicted. For the judges, the employee demonstrated “superficiality, little sense of responsibility and temporary failure to comply with the most basic rules of common sense and prudence”, amounting to serious and inexcusable misconduct.
However, no responsibility was attributed to another nurse and to a medical director of admission and emergency medicine and surgery. The Court found that there was “no illicit conduct causing damage, nor any culpa in vigilando” on their part.
Conclusions
The nurse, defended by the lawyer Emidio Gubbiotti, had argued that her activity had been “prompt, rapid, effective, appropriate and correct”. However, you will have to pay 11,946 euros, in addition to the revaluation according to ISTAT indices and legal interest.
The case highlights the importance of vigilance and continuous assistance to patients, especially those in fragile conditions, to avoid accidents that can have serious legal and human consequences.
Nurse Times editorial team
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