The National Human Rights Commission (CNDH) asked Petróleos Mexicanos to repair the damage to the 69 patients of the Pemex Regional Hospital, in Villahermosa, Tabasco, 14 of whom died, after they were given contaminated medicine to treat kidney problems.
In issuing a recommendation addressed to the general director of Pemex, Octavio Romero Oropeza, the CNDH explained that it opened a file to investigate after between February and March it was announced that patients received contaminated sodium heparin, as well as the lack of specialists to address problems of chronic renal failure and unsanitary conditions in that building.
He explained that CNDH personnel went to the Pemex hospital and after interviews with patients and an analysis of evidence, it was determined that the drug supplied was contaminated with different bacteria.
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And that the haste with which heparin sodium was acquired caused that “the corresponding quality controls were not carried out and that a correct review of it was not carried out, in order to verify that it complied with the quality conditions”.
“When checking the vials, health personnel noticed that the bottles had some alterations, such as the fact that some safety belts were in poor condition and the damaged labeling, before which they proceeded to carry out a culture to them, whose result showed that they were contaminated with different bacteria,” he said.
The CNDH determined that, even though the authorities of the Pemex hospital were aware of the effects that the patients were presenting, the necessary actions were not taken to suspend its application.
It indicated that it was also proven that the absence of drugs for renal failure placed patients in a state of vulnerability; the lack of nephrology specialists and the unsanitary conditions in which the hospital operated.
Read: Bacteria detected in medicine supplied in Pemex hospital; there is a dead person
The commission requested that it collaborate with the Responsibilities Unit of Pemex and with the FGR in the processing and follow-up of the complaints and denunciations that are presented for the irregularities detected in the acquisition of the referred drug and for the behaviors described in the recommendation.
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