Madrid health system ordered to pay €150,000 compensation to patient who contracted HIV during a CT scan

She underwent a contrast CT scan in September 2018, prior to surgery for “ovarian carcinoma, peritoneal carcinomatosis and tumour ascites”. When kidney problems were detected in December 2018, the infection was confirmed.

At the time, the Community of Madrid did not assume any error and decided not to compensate the patient, so she went to court, as reported by 20minutos.es.

According to the Huffington Post, the regional government justified the actions of the Madrid health system, assuring that the infection had not been “causally related to the care received”. They also insisted that the healthcare provided had been “adequate”.  In its defence, Madrid health suggested that: “It cannot be ruled out that the HIV infection was related to her work as a dentist or to care received in private centres”.

The Madrid High Court ruled that: “the existence of two positive cases of HIV on the date on which the CT scan was performed on the plaintiff and the acknowledgement by the administration of failures in work procedures (which determined the outbreak of hepatitis C infection), lead them to consider plausible the hypothesis that the plaintiff was infected as a result of this test”.