Belgian Hospital Acquitted in 2011 Death of 14-Year-Old Patient

In addition to the Molenbeek center, two doctors were also acquitted. On the night of June 7 to 8, 2011, Imane’s parents, aged 14, called a doctor to examine her because she was complaining of abdominal pain followed by vomiting. Fearing that the symptoms presented by the young girl were the beginning of appendicitis, he recommended that they take her to the pediatric emergency room without delay, recalls La Dernière heure.

The parents went to the pediatric emergency room at Saint-Luc, where they were received by a young woman, still in her first year of medicine, who felt there was no urgency and that the patient could return home, follow a Fortimel, Motilium and Dafalgan treatment. Even the fact that the young girl could not walk alone was to be attributed to the stress. For her, Imane was stressed by her exams and should recover quickly after the prescribed treatment.

Back home, the young girl’s condition worsened with a drop in blood pressure, forcing her parents to call in another doctor who, according to the parents’ statements, issued a three-day medical certificate. A series of misdiagnoses, a late transfer to the emergency room will have been the undoing of little Imane. On June 15, she died "following a septic shock on peritonitis on perforated appendicitis".

Declaring itself sensitive and disturbed by "the tragic fate" of the young girl, and "the pain of the parents and the family" of Imane, the Court of Appeal insists that "it cannot be a question of reasoning in hindsight, in view of the information collected later, in the course of the investigation". But for the parents, the Saint-Luc Clinics were careless across the board. They highlighted the poor organization of the pediatric department and the lack of training of the assistant who first received their daughter.

The Court of Appeal, for its part, responds that in view of the file, the assistant, in agreement with her supervisor, did what was necessary, and in particular "carried out all the necessary and useful examinations". For the court, "no shortcoming nor disorganization" can be blamed on the clinics, let alone the doctors who examined Imane Jellal, who if she had survived would be 26 years old today.

Clearly disappointed by the verdict which comes after eleven painful years of waiting, the parents give up and prefer to work on rebuilding after this huge loss.