The family of an Irish tourist who died from peritonitis are suing a hospital in Portugal's Algarve region for €500,000.
Robbie Byrne was pronounced dead when his plane landed at Dublin Airport less than 48 hours after he sought urgent medical attention and was rushed to the main public hospital in Faro in southern Portugal.
Mr Byrne's friends had called for an ambulance when he woke up with crippling stomach pains just over halfway through their week-long holiday.
The 27-year-old's mother, Sonya, claimed her son's treatment at the Algarve University Hospital Centre amounted to little more than "hours of abandonment on a trolley", insisting Robbie's deaht death could have been avoided with better medical care.
Mr Byrne, from Sallynoggin, Dublin, died during the early hours of June 18th, 2022.
"I’ve worked tirelessly to try to get answers since my son died, but I’ve never spoken publicly until now," Ms Byrne said.
"Robbie had a burst appendix, and the poison burnt his oesophagus and burnt a hole through his bowel.
"He was a slight asthmatic, but otherwise a healthy young lad. All of this came on very suddenly.
"He’d gone out with his friends the Wednesday night, and they called for an ambulance after waking up early and hearing him wailing with pain."
She claimed her son's friends were told not to follow the ambulance to the hospital due to measures put in place due to the Covid-19 pandemic, but "after he returned home, he told them he had been left alone in a corner on a trolley".
Robbie said he had been left without his glasses, and was unable to communicate with hospital staff as he did not speak Portuguese.
"None of us knew how sick my son was because he hadn’t got the information that could and should have saved his life, in my opinion," Mrs Byrne said, adding: "I’m so angry now I have the fuller picture."
Having checked himself out of the hospital, Mr Byrne got a flight back to Ireland. However, he died before he landed in Dublin.
'Prolonged pain'
The family's counsel, Alexandre Martins, confirmed he lodged a lawsuit on behalf of Sonya and her husband Nicky last month at a civil court in Lisbon.
"From being treated at the hospital until his death, Robert experienced nearly 48 hours of suffering, without even being prescribed medication to alleviate it," Mr Martins said.
"This prolonged pain and the pain his parents suffered, knowing the circumstances in which their son died, must be compensated.
"We would understand it if Robert had been in the middle of a desert, but there’s no way to explain how anyone can be abandoned inside a hospital in a civilised country," he added.
Mr Martins claimed the hospital in Faro gave Robbie a "non-urgent bracelet", and left him "without care or information".
"Information is essential in a case like this. He was unaware that his life was at risk and, feeling abandoned, ended up turning his back on the hospital without knowing the risk he was running," Mr Martins said.
The lawsuit has been filed against the local health authority, which operates the hospital to which Robbie was taken, and the doctor who examined him in the Emergency Department.
In legal papers, Mr Martins claims the doctor examined Robbie just after midday on June 16th, 2022, and noted in his clinical observations that the Dubliner had a hard abdomen which could be an acute abdomen.
However, the doctor did not inform Robbie of the severity of his conditions, nor did he carry out any more tests, or administer pain relief medicine.
Traumatised
"My son should never have been allowed on that plane. He fainted at the airport in the boarding area, and they asked for an ambulance and got the Red Cross," Ms Byrne said.
"His friends who were with him at the time saw things I don’t want to know about and have still left them traumatised today.
"Our compensation demand stands at €500,000 because I wanted to go to the highest level.
"This is not about money, but about hitting a big corporation where it hurts most, which is in their pockets. They’ll never ever feel the pain we do, which is never going to go away."
She added: "We want and need justice to make sure we get change. People go away on holiday to Portugal, and I’m concerned they’re not being looked after properly.
"My opinion is my son’s death was preventable. I don’t want anyone else to go through what we have as a family. I want to fix the wrongs so other people don’t end up like my boy, and that’s why we’ve launched this legal action."
In a statement, the local health authority said it "naturally regretted" this "personal tragedy", but said the fact the lawsuit had already been lodged meant it could not comment fully on the matter.
"From the preliminary assessment carried out internally, there is no indication or suspicion that calls into question the quality of the services provided.
"The [patient] abandoned the service, which is why we stand ready, with serenity and complete availability, to clarify this situation in the appropriate instances when required," the statement added.
