The psychologist advised Míriam to stop visiting the cemetery to try to turn the page on the death of her son, Jorge, at only 19 years old, but her response was not to return to the therapy sessions. “I always say that I have two houses, one is mine, and the other is the cemetery, where my son’s body rests.“warns Míriam García Cano.
This mother cannot turn the page because she believes that alleged medical negligence deprived Jorge of being treated in time for a spinal tumor and that is why she has filed a complaint against the 22 doctors who were caring for her son, for two years that were a true ordeal. “The disease could have been diagnosed from the beginning and the cancer, instead of being malignant, would have been benign,” Míriam laments daily. “We were in five hospitals between Torrevieja, Elche and Alicante.”
At the moment, the complaint that has been filed through the lawyer Pedro López Graña, has already motivated that The Investigative Court number 3 of Alicante summons 4 of those 22 doctors to testify, as those under investigation, for homicide due to professional negligence. “They had inhuman behavior. They did not show empathy,” says Míriam in an interview with EL ESPAÑOL. “My intuition told me that Jorge was sick because he couldn’t stand up, he was always shaking.”
This poor teenager went to the doctor for the first time on December 25, 2018, but It was not until October 1, 2020 that he was diagnosed with melanomatosis. which caused all the symptoms he had and it was too late because he died on December 11 of that same year. “I wanted to commit suicide because of Jorge’s death because it is very difficult to continue every day, but I have not done it for my other two children,” Míriam admits, unable to hold back her tears at such a confession.
The other compelling reason for not having committed suicide at the age of 46 is to ensure that Justice purges responsibilities for the death of a teenager who devoured books, who was an outstanding student who dreamed of becoming a Language and Literature teacher and who was a crack at tennis. “Jorge’s greatest hobby was reading: since he was little he loved fantasy books,” his mother fondly remembers. “His teachers said that he would go wherever he wanted because he was a special boy, educated, respectful and took care of his two little brothers.”
Miriam turned to López Graña Abogados to report the murder of her son
– Why did your son go to the doctor for the first time?
– Miriam Cano: On Christmas Day 2018, we went down to the health center because Jorge told me that he was getting very dizzy and felt like vomiting. We thought he had gotten sick from all the prawns he ate on Christmas Eve. They sent him a treatment with Motilium for his stomach and we returned home. But the discomfort quickly evolved into a problem with balance and vision in the left eye and they put a neck brace on him because they said it was due to a cervical problem. Then he had an excess of cerebrospinal fluid, he suffered a ventricular collapse, they had to operate…
This mother and her son suffered a via crucis of visits to medical consultations in up to five hospitals: Neurology, Ophthalmology, Internal Medicine… But no diagnosis gave the reason why Jorge’s health went into a tailspin, at the age of 17, until who ended up bedridden and died at 19: in the middle of adolescence. “He ended up paraplegic”summarizes her mother, for whom life has not made it easy at all, not only due to the death of her first-born, but also due to the work accident that Míriam suffered with construction machinery and which forced her to take early retirement.
Míriam did not leave Jorge’s side during the two years she was on a pilgrimage to hospitals in Torrevieja, Elche and Alicante.
“The medical treatment we received was terrible: a neurologist even sent Jorge to a psychiatrist because she claimed he was simulating the tremors he suffered,” as exemplified by this resident of Guardamar del Segura. “He was discharged after suffering epileptic attacks…”I have had to file claims to keep my son admitted.“… “They never reviewed all the tests they did on Jorge from the beginning, to see if there was anything they had overlooked. “At no time was it investigated.”
– What was the key date in this long medical process?
– Míriam García Cano: In May 2019, once he underwent surgery to insert a valve, a radiologist at the Torrevieja Hospital detected in an MRI that there were signs of a tumor, but they did not treat it as possible cancer. There they could have started oncological treatment to prevent the tumor from evolving into a malignant process.
They also did not analyze his cerebrospinal fluid, despite the fact that a doctor requested it when he was transferred to the Alicante General Hospital. They simply put another valve in when they saw that Jorge was not doing well. When my son was admitted to the ICU, his protein levels were already high and they also ignored him when that is an indication that there may be cancer. They did not give him importance nor does he appear in the medical reports.
The lawyer Pedro López Graña has written a 42-page complaint and has mobilized four lawyers from his law firm in Murcia, to establish a millimeter chronology of Jorge’s income, his visits to specialist consultations, in addition to collecting his clinical history and the tests that were performed: analysis, MRI, brain CT. , lumbar puncture… “This case covers four volumes,” warns the criminal lawyer.
Miriam García, this Wednesday, meeting with her lawyer, Pedro López Graña, and several members of her team at her law firm in Murcia.
““The medical process was tortuous just like the legal one.” Proof of this is that the court even archived the case, but López Graña has managed to reactivate it and has now begun taking statements. “The evolution of Jorge’s symptoms was constant. The disease could have been diagnosed from the beginning so that the tumor did not lead to a fatal diagnosis,” according to the lawyer.
– What will be your line of argument as a private accusation?
– Pedro López Graña: We knew that no one wanted Jorge to die, but it is also true that there was inattention, a lack of care, and that caused a delay in diagnosis and a delay in treatment. The key is determining which doctors caused the delay.
It is clear to us that some tests were not done and that he was not properly diagnosed. We sincerely believe that if he had been properly treated at the time, the patient’s evolution would have been different and the specialists themselves say so. There was malpractice caused by the lack of attention to the entire clinical picture that Jorge presented.
In fact, the Court of Instruction number 3 of Alicante has requested two independent expert reports, from two professors of the Royal Academy of Medicine of the Valencian Community, so that assess whether there was medical malpractice. This newspaper has accessed the documents.
Jorge, before falling ill.
The first report concludes this: “From the first months, there was a poor response to the usual treatment of this syndrome and to this is added the appearance of alterations in the neuroimaging tests in May 2019, which could lead to other diagnostic alternatives for the process of the syndrome.” patient. Therefore, We believe that there was a delay in the definitive diagnosis of this patient., despite continuing to get worse and demanding assistance. Another question would be to what degree this early diagnosis would have significantly changed the patient’s survival, due to the poor prognosis of the underlying process, but it would undoubtedly have improved the management of the process.”
The second expert report reflects these conclusions: “There was an obvious delay in diagnosisby the Neurosurgery service, mainly, regarding the definitive diagnosis of the patient Jorge Barroso García, despite the constant search for medical attention by him and his parents, as well as the clinical-radiological worsening evident since May 2019″.
“An earlier definitive diagnosis would have improved the medical attitude, enabling the administration of specific treatment by the Oncology Service which, although palliative in intent, could have alleviated the suffering and slowed down the natural course of the illness from which he died 17 months later.
These independent expert reports corroborate that Míriam, for two long years, visited the hospitals of Torrevieja, Elche and Alicante, both public and private, in order to seek a diagnosis for the cause of the illnesses of her beloved eldest son: Jorge. A teenager who suffered headaches, balance problems, paresthesias, loss of vision in one eye… However, professors they do not specify percentage expectations of survival to the tumor that this young man would have had.
– What conclusion do you draw from the reports requested by the court?
– Pedro López Graña: These professors are in line with our complaint and the medical report that we provided, indicating that young Jorge Barroso was not properly cared for. This lack of attention caused family torture for two years and torture for the boy who ended up in a wheelchair.
Jorge had a spinal tumor biopsy on October 1, 2020, and it revealed that he was suffering from a malignant tumor with a melanocytic appearance. On October 7, an oncologist told Míriam that there was no treatment for her son’s cancer and on November 5, he suggested administering medication with which the teenager would die during his sleep. “They wanted to sedate him and he lived another month because his mother refused,” emphasizes the Murcian lawyer. “Jorge wanted to live even if he were one more day.”
This teenager in love with books, with a vocabulary more typical of an RAE academic than a boy, aged 19, died at 3:50 a.m. on December 11, 2020. Míriam is clear about the reason for death : “We were constantly looking for help, we knocked on all the doors, over and over again, but they closed them on us. They didn’t know how to help Jorge.”