Two Portuguese-Brazilian twins received treatment costing four million euros at Santa Maria Hospital in Lisbon. The children’s trial took place over ten days, from October 21, 2019 to October 31, 2019.
It was about a TVI report that Portuguese-Brazilian twins came to Portugal in 2019 to receive one of the most expensive drugs in the world, Zolgensma, for spinal muscular atrophy.
According to TVI/CNN, suspicions have arisen about the involvement of the President of the Republic, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, in access to treatment. However, the head of state publicly denied that he had interceded with the hospital or any other entity.
A lawyer for the twins’ family said it took the girls five months to obtain citizenship, which they received in September 2019.
On December 4, 2023, Marcelo Rebelo de Souza held a press conference in Belem and explained that his son Nuno Rebelo de Souza sent him an email saying that a group of friends from the twins’ family had met and “I was trying to get them treated in Portugal” . After this, the documentation was sent to the Santa Maria Hospital, but they did not receive a response.
The President of the Republic even guaranteed that “there is no fact that would entail the slightest favor on the part of anyone,” adding that he treated his son like any other citizen: “I treated him like that. I sent it to whoever I should send it to.” “.
On November 6, 2023, the General Inspectorate of Medical Activities (IGAS) began an investigation into the case.
Antonio Lacerda Sales has already stated that no Secretary of State has the power to make appointments and influence or violate the conscience and autonomy of any doctor. But it was Secretary Lacerda Sales, then health minister, who asked for the first appointment for the Portuguese-Brazilian twins during a mysterious phone call to Santa Maria Hospital.
This Thursday, the General Inspectorate of Health confirmed that in June 2020 the twins had irregular access to treatment.
The final report will be sent by IGAS to the Ministry of Justice, which is responsible for determining whether any crime was committed during the treatment of the twins at SNS.
Having Portuguese citizenship, the children had to be treated by the National Health Service (NHS), but intervention by the State Department of Health may have created a possible advantage for girls in accessing the NHS.