Vinicio Portillo, 25, died on August 20, ten days after being held up in the street. During the attack, he suffered a dislocated shoulder that ultimately led to the young man’s death. “He caught the bacteria because he was treated negligently and they didn’t see where the pain was coming from,” denounces Geysell, his mother.
In the early hours of August 10, Vinicio Portillo left his job at his family’s bar in San Sebastian. He was carrying a fanny pack and a bag of beers and had just split up with his partner Adrián. I was in the Easo Street when he was attacked by four men: they took everything he was carrying and threw him to the ground.
THE Ertzaintza He found Vinicio on the ground and called the ambulance, which took him to the hospital for treatment. After a few hours at the medical center, the diagnosis is clear: elbow trauma with a possible fracture line of the radial head. The treatment you will have to take will be paracetamol for the pain and the joint immobilized with a splint.
Hours and even days pass, but Vinicio does not improve. Geysell recalls those days in a conversation with EL ESPAÑOL: “He begins to say that it tightens him, that he feels a strange sensation in his skin.”
Three days passed until Vinicio returned to the doctor. On August 13, according to the complaint of his relatives, the young Honduran returned to a medical center. On this occasion, he went to the outpatient clinic Amara-Berri from DonostiaLittle is known about this visit, except that there is no medical record.
This is the August 16 when Vinicio can no longer bear the pain. In the previous days, he comments Geysell“I had a fever, I had stopped eatinghis skin turned whitish…” But that day, he removed the bandage and splint that the doctors had put on him and which covered his entire arm.
In the videos recorded at that time and not reproduced here due to the harshness, Vinicio’s member can be seen completely black, with superficial wounds in which he had lost part of the skin. “They didn’t give him any medicine, they didn’t give him anything,” says a man’s voice. A woman insists with astonishment: “I would say because his skin opened.”
Vinicio, behind, with a member of his family.
Two more days pass before Vinicio goes to the hospital again. Saint-Donostia Hospital. He August 18 At 10:25 a.m., an assessment was performed during which a hematoma and swelling were observed in the left elbow. The physician reported that he felt “pain with the slightest extension of the elbow.”
The doctor puts the splint and a bandage back on, denounces the family. The treatment is paracetamol and metamisole. Barely two hours have passed since he arrived at the hospital and they tell Vinicio to make an appointment with his family doctor.
The situation is not improving, but it is getting worse. Vinicio still has no appetite and is starting to vomit. The family’s complaint states that he went to the emergency room again very early. day 19 and the swelling and bruising had spread to the entire arm and fingers. “Already He had virtually no mobility in his hand“, the mother explains in conversation with EL ESPAÑOL. She even has an ulcer of more than five centimeters. Tramadol is added to the treatment.
The young man arrives at his uncles’ house, where he lives, and claims that a ball of blood was removed from him with a syringe. Rest assured, the bleeding was normal.
His family insists that he continue to see the doctor. They record videos of his hands. In one of them, his cousin can be heard saying, “Look how this kid has his arm and this is how they’re sending him home. It can’t be like this. We have to leave evidence, damn it, if this kid, how is this kid going to get this arm…”
The critical moment is coming August 20. HAS 4:30 p.m.Vinicio’s aunt finds him sweating, pale, half-conscious and very weak. His aunt cannot persuade him to go to the doctor one more day, but at 10 o’clock in the evening His cousin calls the ambulance because the young man cannot move.
“They didn’t want to send him an ambulance,” his mother told the newspaper. They told her that “for a dislocated elbow, it wasn’t necessary.” “He didn’t react anymore,” the mother said, so “after begging for an ambulance, they put him in a taxi.”
The young Honduran arrives at the hospital with his uncle and aunt. They take an X-ray of his elbow, according to the family, and take him to a box to await treatment. On the stretcher itself, relatives check in on Vinicio with numb and pale fingers.
The situation worsens and the family members look for a doctor. They find one in the corridors and as soon as they see him Vinicio alerts other colleaguesHe was transferred and separated from his relatives, who spent two hours without hearing anything from the young man.
Vinicio’s aunt then learns that he is in critical condition, that he is in intensive care. They will intervene urgently to empty him and leave him open, according to his mother.
These are the 6:22 am on August 20 when Vinicio, 25, died after 40 minutes of resuscitation.
The complaint
Vinicio’s family has filed a complaint over the allegations “medical negligence”According to specialists, the young man died from an infection that spread to his blood, which eventually caused multiple organ failure and cardiac arrest.
“There is no not a single medical report signed by a specialist“, complains the mother and specifies in the complaint.
Geysell assures that the the coroner was very kindbut that the level of infection was such that it had to be given two days for it to decrease. “They had to equip themselves with special equipment,” he emphasizes.
The relatives have already filed a complaint for medical negligence with Ertzainza. In addition, they have other actions planned. Among others, a rally in front of the hospital that will take place this Sunday.
