Hospital Crisis in Santiago Panama Exposes a Patient’s Death
A video circulating on social media shows the patient’s difficult transfer, highlighting the efforts of healthcare personnel amid the hospital’s operational limitations. Medical effort to transfer the patient to the Emergency Room pictured below.
A patient seeking medical attention at Dr. Luis “Chicho” Fábrega Hospital collapsed in the dialysis unit on Tuesday and died minutes later from cardiorespiratory arrest, despite the efforts of medical staff. The incident occurred in the morning, when the patient collapsed inside the facility. Given the urgency of the case and the hospital elevators being out of service since the weekend, doctors and nurses were forced to carry him on foot on a stretcher up the parking lot ramp to the Emergency Room.
Sadly, the patient died before receiving specialized medical care. A video circulating on social media shows the patient’s difficult transfer, highlighting the efforts of healthcare personnel amid the hospital’s operational limitations. Dr. Shirley Reyes, the hospital’s medical director, clarified at a press conference that the patient’s prognosis was the same with or without the elevator damage. At the same time, she expressed her condolences to the family for their irreparable loss. Reyes reported that the elevators are already being repaired, prioritizing the most sensitive areas of the hospital.
