Elderly Woman Reportedly Dies After Being Injected With Soup At Hospital

There is a shocking report out of Brazil where an elderly woman reportedly died after being given an injection with soup. Yes, soup. The stories sent to me remain in Spanish or Portuguese only though the image of this hospital on television reports in Brazil does not fill one with confidence. [Warning graphic description below]

This story follows an equally horrific account of doctor pulling off the head of a baby in delivery — requiring a Caesarian to remove the rest of baby’s body.

Brazil is an interesting legal system because the Brazilian legal system adopted the Federal Constitution enacted in 1988 made the defense of consumers into a constitutional right. Pursuant to Article 5, the Constitution states, “The Brazilian State will promote, in the terms of the law, the defense of the consumer.” Accordingly, the court play a much more direct and active role in addressing such cases of malpractice. However, problems remain including what Eduardo Dantas refers to serious problems with basic concepts of informed consent. Eduardo Dantas, A Bridge Over Troubled Waters: The Development of Medical Malpractice Litigation in Brazil , 87 Chi.-Kent L. Rev. 3 (2012).

It is not clear whether the hospital intentionally injected the soup under some primitive notion of nourishment or it was done by mistake. I am not sure whether would be scarier: the notion that they would believe this would work or that they could confuse a soup container with a medicine.