The National Center for Public Health and Pharmacy (NCPHP) has identified several instances of negligence in the hospital care provided to Piroska, an 89-year-old woman who died of a heart attack. Direkt36 detailed the events of the evening before her death in our article in March. The authority began investigating the Dél-Budai Centrumkórház Szent Imre Egyetemi Oktatókórház (Szent Imre Hospital), after the woman’s son felt that his mother’s care had been negligent and filed an official complaint with the NCPHP.

“Based on the available documentation, it can be established with high probability that the care provided by the hospital was not appropriate for the patient’s current condition,” reads the document obtained by Direkt36, in which the NCPHP provides information on the investigation of the complaint. It also reveals that  the NCPHP found Piroska’s son’s complaint substantiated. The healthcare authrity is initiating legal proceedings against the hospital suspecting that the institution violated professional standards, provided inadequate care, and did not properly document the case.

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As we reported, Piroska was admitted to the emergency ward of Szent Imre Hospital in September 2024 because she was experiencing sharp, radiating back pain, shortness of breath, and a fear of dying. The nurses performing the triage — the assessment of the patient’s medical condition — did not perform an ECG during the woman’s examination, despite her requests.

According to the NCPHP’s investigation, this “constitutes professional negligence,” as the ECG would have quickly detected that Piroska was having a heart attack.

According to the investigation — which was based in part on the opinion of an emergency medicine specialist — the fact that the nurse categorized Piroska’s case as “less urgent” could also be considered professional negligence. This meant that she would have had to wait as long as 6–8 hours for a thorough medical examination by a doctor and the results of her blood test. According to the expert’s opinion, the woman’s case should have been categorized “urgent,” which would have required her to be seen by a doctor within half an hour.

The woman, who was struggling with pain, wanted to ask for painkillers, but she was not given any. “You should have taken that at home,” one of the nurses told her. The authority’s investigation does not address the nurse’s communication or the refusal of medication, but it turns out that the intensity of her pain was not documented on the outpatient form. According to the official document, the severe pain mentioned by the woman would have warranted an urgent classification.

The woman’s condition worsened while she was waiting, but despite her son and friend repeatedly asking for help, Piroska was not re-examined, and no doctor saw her. The woman could not bear to wait sitting in a chair for 6–8 hours before receiving care. She felt her time was being wasted and that she could see a doctor more quickly through private medical services. Therefore, at 9:30 p.m., she left the hospital at her own risk. She passed away at her home a few hours later.

The investigation concluded that if the ECG had been performed at the hospital and the woman had been treated as an urgent case, “the patient’s condition would not have deteriorated, or would have done so only under hospital conditions.”

Based on its own 2024 investigation, Szent Imre Hospital initially found no professional mistakes. However, in response to the findings of the NCPHP investigation, the hospital told Direkt36 that they accepted the authorities conclusions and they cooperate with the agency. The hospital wrote that the “backbone of their 2024 report was the statement by the department’s chief physician at the time.” The chief physician has since left the institution on his own initiative. The hospital also noted that “our institution does not consider inadequate communication with patients acceptable in any form.”

We also wanted to know whether there were any consequences of this event, but citing the ongoing proceedings, they did not answer this question.

We asked the same from the NCPHP. Their response briefly stated that the authority “will take the necessary measures,” but they could not provide further information, citing data protection laws.

In response to a request from Direkt36, Piroska’s son said that he finds the results of the investigation encouraging, but at the same time considers it “extremely saddening” that he had to wait more than a year for the NCPHP’s response. “Nothing can bring my mother back, but the NCPHP’s current findings — that her deteriorating condition could have been prevented with proper care — offer me a kind of moral satisfaction,” he wrote to Direkt36.

“What my family and I have felt all along has been proven: my mother was not given a chance to survive because the hospital failed to follow basic professional protocols. It is painful to read that if they had performed the ECG and taken her symptoms seriously, she might still be with us today,” he stated.

Regarding the hospital’s response, he wrote that he considers it positive that they acknowledge the mistakes, but after the loss of a human life, this alone is not enough for him. “I trust that the legal proceedings will have real consequences, and that no one else will have to endure the undignified treatment my mother had to” he added.

You can read our article investigating the circumstances of Piroska’s death here.