A Lisbon nursery has been ordered to compensate the parents of an infant who died after he choked on a piece of banana. The decision of the Supreme Court has been made public, seven years after the death of the child, the newspaper reports. Public.
The judges, unsure whether the child will survive if help is provided sooner, order the insurance company and the kindergarten itself to pay 42,500 euros.
The 20-month-old child studied in the first grade. In September 2016, after the teacher handed out a piece of banana to everyone, the boy asked for a second piece, which caused him to choke.
When the accident happened, there was only one assistant in the room. The boy did not moan, did not cry, and could not breathe. The assistant tried several times to remove the piece from the child’s throat, but to no avail.
11 minutes after the boy swallowed the second slice of banana, the vice president of the board of directors of the institution, which had meanwhile joined in the effort to save the boy, orders him to contact INEM and the child’s parents.
When the mother arrives, the child receives support from the staff who are assisted by INEM over the phone. Emergency services suggest that women seek help from a healthcare professional, as the facility is located in the Lisbon Health Park.
When INEM arrives, he tries to clear the child’s airway, but fails. The boy died in the hospital two days later.
The nursery has now been convicted by the court after being acquitted at first instance and in the Lisbon Court of Appeal. The judges believed that even if contact with INEM had been faster, the outcome could not have been different, reports Public.
The Supreme Court questions this reasoning and points out the importance of the fact that the center is located next to the polyclinic.