Mother of new-born baby dies after being crushed by lift in Sevilla hospital

A 25-YEAR-OLD-old woman, Rocío Cortés Núñez, mother of a new-born baby has died after her body was crushed in a lift at the Hospital Universitario de Valme de Sevilla.

Sources say that the patient, a mother-of-three, was being transferred from the second to the third floor on a stretcher after giving birth by caesarean section. The baby was unharmed.

The woman, from Dos Hermanas (Sevilla) was being taken into the lift when the door lock control device apparently failed.

The lift then began its upwards journey without the stretcher fully inside.

Firefighters were called to free the body but doctors at the hospital were unable to save the woman’s life.

Rocío’s  distraught father, Juan Manuel Cortés, who had travelled by train from Malaga  to visit his daughter and her new-born baby in hospital was prevented from entering the building by police before he learned of the accident. 

“They have killed my beautiful girl,” he said.

One of Rocio’s brothers, Fernando, said he  remembered his sister as a ‘smiling, always cheerful person’.

“We came [to the hospital] for  happiness and they have taken a life.”

The Junta de Andalucia released a statement to say the lift was last inspected on August 12 by the company in charge of the maintenance.