A patient who is already anesthetized and the surgery is canceled will be reimbursed by the hospital

A private upstate hospital has been ordered to compensate a patient whose surgery was canceled, despite already being anaesthetised, due to an alleged lack of suitable instruments. As regards the HMO operator in question, the request was rejected as unfounded, as he had fulfilled his obligation to approve the procedure. The action was processed in the 1st Special Civil Court of the Joinville District.

Understand the issue

In August 2022, the author was diagnosed with “large right hydronephrosis and umbilical hernia” and was referred for surgery. At that moment, the whole chaos unfolded, with numerous postponements of the procedure including the registration of complaints with the National Health Agency.

However, in mid-October, the operation was finally confirmed. But the problems did not stop there. When the patient was already on the operating table and the anesthesia process began, the operation had to be canceled on the pretext that the hospital offered a model of scissors similar to the required scissors, but not suitable for the intervention. .

Once this was stated, the defendant requested that the claim for compensation be dismissed. However, the decision confirmed that the facts narrated by the author are reliable and supported by the evidence presented, which proves that the surgery was actually canceled when the procedures (hospitalization and anesthesia) had already begun.

“The defendant’s claim that he provided the necessary equipment, but that the surgical operation was postponed due to a medical decision, does not deserve success. All the attached evidence indicates that at the beginning of the proceedings there were not the necessary materials to carry them out. Although the defendant claimed that the facts that the plaintiff experienced does not generate a duty to compensate, the conclusion reached is the opposite. […] “In this case, the plaintiff suffered physical pain and all the resulting discomfort and had the procedure postponed after she was already anaesthetized.”

The judge concluded that the moral damage he had suffered was evident in this way. For this reason, the health institution was ordered to pay compensation for moral damages in the amount of R$ 10,000. The decision can still be appealed.