Teenager Dies After Hospital Mistakes Stroke For Ear Infection

A teenage girl has died at the very hospital where she wanted to become a nurse after bungling medics allegedly mistook her stroke for an ear infection twice.

Mar Gutierrez Puget, 18, from the province of Cadiz, in south-western Spain, suffered from headaches for five days in September last year, with her parents taking her to a local hospital after she collapsed on the morning of 18th September.

Medics there allegedly misdiagnosed her, saying that the stroke she was suffering was actually a mild ear infection.

Then medics at a different hospital allegedly did the same thing before a relative who works as a doctor told her parents to get a CT scan.

Now her mum Estefania has opened up about her daughter’s ordeal.

Estefania told local media: “She struggled to speak. We took her to a medical centre in our municipality, Chiclana.

Picture shows Hospital Puerta del Mar, in Cadiz, Spain, undated. Mar, 18, died here after doctors confused a stroke with otitis. Note: Private photo. (Newsflash) (Google Maps/Newsflash)

“But they ignored any information I provided regarding her collapse. After checking her ear, Mar was given a painkiller. She was diagnosed with otitis and discharged.

“The ear, nose and throat physician told me my girl wasn’t suffering any fits. He claimed she was just shivering. But my daughter had sustained a stroke.”

On the same day, her parents took the girl to another clinic after her condition did not improve.

Estefania said: “The doctors at the Puerto Real Hospital checked her ear and gave her some medication against her headache and nausea. After the treatment, they sent us back home.

“At home, Mar peed herself, she was unable to walk. So I called up a relative who works as a doctor at another clinic. After examining her, he told me straightaway: ‘I can’t understand why this girl hasn’t been ordered to undergo a CT scan of her head.”

Mar underwent emergency surgery by a neurosurgeon at the Puerta del Mar Hospital. Her condition briefly improved before it seriously worsened the next day. Mar passed away in intensive care on 20th September.

The local healthcare authority – which reportedly did not get in touch with the teenager’s family – issued a statement saying: “The Andalusian Health Service regrets the death of the young woman. We are at her family’s disposal.”

Estefania praised her late daughter as a “very special girl.”

The grieving mum told local media: “She was happy, very sensible and kind.”

Mar reportedly wanted to become a nurse. A few months before her death, she had completed a nursing assistant traineeship at the very clinic where she died.

It has not been made clear whether her family plans legal action against the local health authority or the hospitals.

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