Henrique's Story

My son was a healthy 26-year-old and my only child.

We are Portuguese from Albufeira, in the Algarve, and we came to live in Ireland in 2018.

We went to the emergency room at Galway Hospital on January 18, 2024, when my son complained of feeling very tired, short of breath, and experiencing chest discomfort.

We arrived at the emergency room at 7:30 PM, explaining that he had these complaints, but he was only called for triage around 9 PM.

There, he complained of shortness of breath and chest discomfort. I was present and confirmed this, providing some additional information.

During triage, they performed an electrocardiogram and asked him to wait in the waiting room until they called him.

Today, after investigations, I know that they immediately flagged the examination as "Urgent" because he had tachycardia.

*In Ireland, they don't use color-coded wristbands to indicate the severity of care.

In the waiting room, after a while, a nurse called me to draw blood and insert a catheter and later came to the waiting room to administer fluids (?!) and told me to wait for the doctor to call.

When the doctor called after an hour and a half of waiting, the blood tests showed high white blood cell count (infection), and the doctor said it's normal in smokers and that it was probably just a respiratory infection. Anyway, I kept insisting…

* That there was a history of heart problems in our family and that he was born with a significant heart murmur and was monitored for a long time during his childhood.

* I also questioned whether it could be a blood clot, since I had been hospitalized in that same hospital for four days, 3 months earlier with blood clots in both lungs and conclusive tests were done and I was on medication for 6 months.

* He maintained the answer that it was just a respiratory infection, but that he would order an X-ray.

* When Henrique returned from the X-ray, he told me that they repeated the X-ray 3 times, then the doctor came and said that everything was fine, and that "It was just a respiratory infection."

* Today I also know from investigations that the X-rays showed that Henrique's heart was very dilated.

* "There is nothing wrong with Henrique's heart," he said.

* He prescribed antibiotics for 7 days and antihistamines, saying that if it didn't improve, I should see my family doctor. He didn't even ask for a second opinion or a cardiologist.

When discharging my son from the hospital, the doctor asked again if, at that moment, while talking to him, he was having difficulty breathing. My son said yes and replied that just talking to the doctor made him feel tired and had difficulty breathing properly. He also asked again if he felt any chest pain at that moment, and my son replied (placing his left hand on his chest): "Yes, some discomfort on the left side." In any case, the doctor did not keep him hospitalized overnight to monitor him and refer him to a cardiologist.

Believing in the diagnosis, we left the hospital at 3:30 in the morning and went home.

My son started taking the medication on January 19th and kept saying he felt the same, and I told him that the antibiotic would take some time to take effect.

On the fateful morning of January 20th, at 00:52, we were sleeping when my son called me asking for "help," which was the only word he mumbled.

We jumped out of bed and ran to him. My husband immediately called the ambulance.

He was on the computer and wasn't moving, he was sweating profusely, his eyes were rolled back, and he was hyperventilating.

The firefighters took 18 minutes to arrive, and the paramedic didn't come, even though it was said on the phone that he had been in the hospital the day before (Serious failure).

They didn't show through their procedures that they thought it was serious; they didn't insert a catheter or give him oxygen immediately when they saw him.

It seemed like they were having a good time (one of them was at my house for the second time, and he was always very rude) and had an almost aggressive demeanour.

I begged them to give him oxygen and he said:

"No need to shout, let me do my job."

They continued to ask my son about drugs, asthma, medications he was taking, etc.

He couldn't speak and we were panicking, answering for him.

This firefighter asked, while transferring him to the stretcher like a sack of potatoes: "HE DOESN'T SPEAK ENGLISH???? Rudely.

My son spoke 100% English, but I yelled: "He can't speak" and the last word I heard from my son was a gasping sigh in English: "HELP!"

His heart stopped seconds later at home, in the ambulance, they performed manual CPR, there wasn't even a defibrillator, and while they communicated and waited for the paramedic to arrive, there's no justification for him not being there.

At that time, they were trying something almost impossible, putting a catheter in my son's vein.

Finally, they said they felt a pulse but it was very weak.

When the paramedic arrived at high speed, he got in and immediately gave him adrenaline, and the ambulance immediately left.

We immediately went after the ambulance and arrived at the same time; he passed by us intubated and was already dead, but they didn't tell us anything.

They put us in a room.

In shock, I thought there was still hope, and that all of this wasn't happening, but a few minutes later, at the hospital, they said they had tried everything to resuscitate him.

Two doctors and a nurse came to give us the terrible and unbearable news.

They said: "He didn't make it and died on the way to the hospital; we did everything to bring him back."

And I just couldn't believe it.

I knelt on the floor and begged them to try harder…

The doctor said, "I'm sorry, but there's nothing more we can do for him."

I only recognized the doctor who had treated my Henrique the night before when he asked, "What happened? I was with him yesterday…"

I lost my mind and screamed: "Why did you send my son home???"

"You killed my son!"

His eyes were petrified, and the other doctor asked him to leave the room.

I spent 6 hours with my son, touching his hair, kissing him, hugging him, and I left there thinking he would be admitted and that I would come back to see him.

But that wasn't the case.

After 4 investigations, we now know that everything was there, and Henrique had more than a 90% chance of surviving that day.

Yes, there was total disregard and disrespect for my son's life, the human life they swear they want to save when they become doctors.

It has been more than 2 years of torture, emptiness, and revolt, in which I also died that day.

Grotesque negligence on the part of both the hospital and the firefighters who waited more than an hour for the paramedic to give my son adrenaline, and who made us witness that horror, not giving importance to what was happening there.

These are images I will never forget, given my helplessness as a mother who always protected her son tooth and nail.

This was more than a tragedy or negligence, it was MURDER, and they took away my reason for living.

I fight for justice, that they lose their licenses, that they are imprisoned, that they are punished and held accountable for their actions, and that they never do this to ANYONE else again.

I will never be silent, and I will never forget what they did to my son, a much-loved young man, with so much to live for, a wonderful son and a human being of such kindness, a caregiver, a protector who was my greatest blessing and pride.