Diana Pereira, who today testified as part of the civil case ongoing at the Faro Court, is on trial for defamation after reporting 11 cases of alleged surgical malpractices at Faro Hospital in 2023.
In court, the doctor reported that, aside from many minor procedures, during just one month, a training cohort performed nine laparoscopic appendectomies (removal of the appendix using minimally invasive surgical techniques), including on children and primarily as the lead surgeon, almost always accompanied by her mentor, Pedro Henriques.
“It was in Portimão [the hospital to which she was transferred after requesting a suspension of duties in Faro] that I began to notice I was lacking basic skills that I should have been taught first, long before performing laparoscopic surgeries,” she noted.
Diana Pereira described feeling “nervous and afraid” of not being able to properly execute certain surgical steps, expressing concern over the responsibility placed on her with so little training time, which eventually led her to ask for a new mentor to be assigned.
The doctor stated that she started to question Pedro Henriques’ competence as a mentor right in the initial weeks of her internship, when what she observed in the operating room did not match the educational videos she watched in preparation for surgeries.
The defendant admitted in court to reaching a point of “exhaustion” after witnessing several alleged malpractice incidents by Henriques, feeling that she could no longer “comply” with those situations, as that made her complicit, ultimately leading her to file a complaint with the Judicial Police.
Also heard in court, surgeon Manuel Parreira, who was part of Diana Pereira’s team, described Pedro Henriques, who had been his intern, as a doctor who “needed support from a more differentiated person when there were more complicated procedures.”
Acknowledging there had been some complaints about that surgeon’s clinical practice, Manuel Parreira admitted perceiving that there were more new procedures following surgeries conducted by Pedro Henriques compared to other surgeons, as complications “were more frequent” in these cases.
“It was discussed among the team, and we tried to improve things. [Among surgeons] We would say that this case could have been handled differently, with fewer complications. There were complications that were avoidable, that was the impression I got,” declared the surgeon.
The clinical director of the former Algarve Hospital and University Center (CHUA) at the time of the events, Horácio Guerreiro, claimed in court that he never thought Diana Pereira intended to harm her mentor, although he believed that she “might not be judging well.”
On these grounds and because he questioned the “prudence” of Diana Pereira’s act of reporting, Horácio Guerreiro requested Public Health to conduct a psychiatric evaluation on her, which never occurred.
The defamation lawsuit against Diana Pereira was filed by Gildásio Martins dos Santos, then director of the Surgery Department, who is demanding compensation of 172 thousand euros and accuses the intern doctor of “tarnishing his good name and reputation.”
The complaint involved 11 cases, with three patients allegedly involved in incorrect procedures eventually dying, and the others sustaining bodily injuries associated with alleged medical errors, including accidental castration, loss of kidneys, or lifelong necessity for a colostomy.
The final arguments in the case are scheduled for next Tuesday at 1:45 PM.
