A six-year-old girl was crushed to death in an elevator at the Mexican Institute for Social Security (IMSS) Hospital No. 18 in Playa del Carmen, Quintana Roo.
The accident happened on Monday evening when the little girl was taken to the hospital for a case of dengue. According to preliminary reports, with the doors open, the elevator began to go up when the gurney carrying the girl had not fully entered the elevator. “Around 10:30 p.m. while the elevator was being transported, the elevator failed and the minor was under pressure, ultimately resulting in a significant loss to her,” said Dr. Enrique Leobardo Ureña, IMSS delegate in Quintana Roo.
In a statement, the agency regretted the incident, expressed its condolences and reiterated its full support for the minor’s family. In the same document, the Health Institute noted that the maintenance of the elevators is the responsibility of an external company subcontracted by the IMSS: Sitravem SA de CV.
dr Ureña, in the video broadcast on social networks, points out that on the same day the minor died, a defect in the elevator was reported and that a technician from the company came to service it. “An hour later, the technician exited the building without leaving any signs and cordons preventing use of the elevator and no evidence of any restriction on use,” continues the IMSS Delegate in Quintana Roo, noting that the damaged elevator installs had been. in 2016.
Prosecutors have launched an investigation into the incident and arrested a man, who was the orderly who was carrying the minor, on charges of negligent homicide. IMSS said in the statement that the minor had received “necessary and appropriate” medical care and that the authorities were notified immediately after the horrific incident. The girl’s parents have filed a complaint against those responsible with the public prosecutor’s office.
The Quintana Roo Human Rights Commission has filed an ex officio complaint against the IMSS and this is being referred to the National Commission as it is a federal agency. State Governor Mara Lezama urged prosecutors to conduct a timely, swift and expeditious investigation to identify those responsible.
It is not the first time that IMSS hospitals have been associated with all kinds of supply problems and facilities in a deplorable condition. A few months ago, IMSS staff at Subzone No. 33 General Hospital in San Andrés Tuxtla, Veracruz, used their cell phones to record how the hospital was being flooded by torrential rain and patients had to be relocated. In April of that year, Mexico City’s Siglo XXI Medical Center, one of the IMSS’s crown jewels in the country, was also at the center of the controversy when a group of doctors had to abandon a procedure in the middle of the hospital’s operating room because the ceiling was full of worms, affecting the patient they were operating on.
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