A man who suffered an accident in the Azores and was transported to Lisbon for hospital treatment was found dead in Vila Franca de Xira, after disappearing from Hospital de São José, where he had been admitted hours earlier in the emergency room.
José Barbosa, 64, was injured on Monday afternoon in an accident involving a pole in the municipality of Lagoa, São Miguel.
Due to the lack of a maxillofacial fracture specialist in Ponta Delgada, the patient was flown to Hospital de São José in Lisbon and admitted to the emergency room after midnight on June 17.
According to his family, after receiving initial care, the Azorean was waiting for a “specialist doctor” to examine him in the morning to determine whether he needed “facial surgery.”
The family members accompanying him left the hospital at 3 a.m. When they returned to São José in the morning, they could not find him.
“Nobody knew anything. He disappeared,” the godson told the regional television channel.
The family then called José Carlos’s mobile phone, which he answered. He claimed to be in the Azores, in Fajã de Baixo, with his wife, which was not true. José Carlos was not lucid, and at a certain point, his phone ran out of battery.
At 10 p.m. on Tuesday, June 17, he was found dead on a road in Azinhaga das Saínhas, Vila Franca de Xira, about 35 km from Hospital de São José, from where he disappeared.
The body was discovered by local residents, and the Public Security Police (PSP) was called to the scene. The circumstances surrounding his death are unknown, and the case has been assigned to the Judiciary Police (PJ).
The family demands answers from the hospital. They want to understand how José Barbosa, who was not lucid, left the hospital unnoticed and ended up in Vila Franca de Xira.
The Local Health Unit (ULS) of São José assured that “its Board of Directors has ordered an investigation to ascertain the circumstances surrounding the patient’s disappearance.”
In the same statement, Hospital de São José explained that “the patient was transferred from the emergency department of Hospital do Divino Espírito Santo, São Miguel (Autonomous Region of the Azores), to the emergency department of Hospital São José, where he was being evaluated in the outpatient area, accompanied by family members.”
“The patient was not hospitalized,” they affirmed, adding that “up to the moment of his disappearance, no signs of disorientation were detected.”
The body has been sent for autopsy.
The Regional Secretary of Health of the Azores, Mónica Seidi, has already expressed her condolences and is awaiting the conclusions of the internal inquiry by Hospital de São José.
She assured RTP-Açores that the Regional Government is monitoring the situation.
Despite the incident involving José Barbosa, Mónica Seidi emphasized her “confidence in the various institutions” and in the “healthcare provided to patients.”
