Relatives of Daniel Sebastián Oviedo, who died last February in the Italian hospital in La Plata
More than six months have passed since investigations into contaminated fentanyl from the HLB Pharma and Ramallo laboratories began, and many people are still unsure whether a family member died from it.
In May of this year, the judiciary began investigating the possible link between fentanyl vials contaminated with the bacteria Klebsiella pneumoniae MLB and Ralstonia pickettii in several deaths in hospitals in La Plata and Rosario. Although Judge Ernesto Kreplak has so far analyzed a total of 173 deaths in the case, suspicions continue to mount for additional victims.
Week after week, relatives of deceased patients who were injected with fentanyl on doctor’s recommendation in hospitals in La Plata and Rosario join WhatsApp groups and social networks of parents, siblings and children of the victims.
Many of them live with the nagging doubt as to whether the opioid used on their loved ones was part of Lots 31,202 containing 154,530 contaminated vials and 31,244 containing 151,430 units, although suspicion remains that there are many more that are not being investigated.
Faced with this scenario of uncertainty, those who represent the relatives of the victims or who have necessarily become “experts” in the case are helping suspected people gain access to the most important information to enter the case: which batch was delivered to their relatives.
If this information – which can be found in the medical history and hospital report – matches that of the contaminated items, the victims’ families can contact the Justice Department to have their case added to the file.
Failures and concealments
In early November, a new report from the Supreme Court’s Forensic Medical Corps was released that found the contaminated opioid was the determining factor in at least 38 deaths.
According to the document, at the end of October the first report published by a medical association on deaths caused by adulterated fentanyl was updated and on that occasion 20 additional cases were analyzed, leading to a new alarming result.
According to the report, in 38 of the 40 samples analyzed, administration of the contaminated opioid was found to be “critical to the patient’s fatal outcome.” Regarding the remaining two cases, it was pointed out that a direct connection could not be established.
In turn, a special commission of the nation’s Chamber of Deputies conducted a months-long investigation to examine what happened and who was responsible for the country’s worst health tragedy.
Although 173 deaths are being investigated, suspicions of additional victims continue to mount
Last Tuesday, this commission presented the final report in which it stated that the Argentine State could neither guarantee the traceability of fentanyl nor the effective control of laboratories.
The legal report also shows that the hospitals concealed cases, that documentation was created “after the fact” by the authorities of both laboratories and that the control organizations acted late and poorly.
For the members of the commission, the conclusion is clear: the deaths caused by contaminated fentanyl were not an accident, but a chain of avoidable errors, concealments, lack of control and a laboratory that worked with inconsistent records that were even confirmed by the employees themselves.
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