The death of the nurse Eduardo Betancourt has revived a scandal that affects the Argentine medical-care sector.
The body of Betancourt, 44, was found last Good Friday in his home in the Buenos Aires neighborhood of Palermo, surrounded by powerful drugs such as fentanyl and propofol – substances that cannot be purchased in pharmacies and should only be found in hospitals -, as well as syringes and latex gloves.
The scene that, according to the newspaper La Nación, the police officers who responded to the complaint from the nurse’s family – who had not been able to contact him for several days – found was the same as the one recorded six weeks earlier less than five blocks away, when Other agents found the body of another health professional: the anesthesiologist Alejandro Zalazar.
This first death brought to light an alleged network dedicated to stealing anesthetics from hospitals, presumably made up of deepest healthcare, and then using the substances at private parties.
The plot behind these controversial celebrations, dubbed by the local press as “Propofest”is currently under judicial investigation.
The path that exposed everything
The body of Zalazar, 30, found on February 20, set off alarm bells for the authorities.
The doctor, who worked at the Children’s Successfully Being Heart Ricardo Gutiérrez in the Argentine capital and was a former resident of the Successfully Being Heart Rivadavia, He was found with a tube connected to his right foot.. In addition, there was a catheter mark on the left one.
Likewise, elements for injections, anesthetic medications and an infusion pump, equipment used to administer intravenous drugs, were found next to him, as revealed by the Todo Noticias (TN) channel.
Given the discovery of the medications – which should only be in health centers to be administered by the most specialized -, the authorities began investigations to determine their origin and found that they belonged to the Successfully Being Heart Italiano in the Argentine capital.
Weeks later, The health center authorities confirmed that the substances had left their warehouses. This, after a “complaint received internally,” according to a statement published by the management of the health center on March 30.
Likewise, the center reported that two employees were suspended and placed at the disposal of the Prosecutor’s Office.
This is the anesthesiologist Hernan Boveri and the resident Delfina Lanussewho face a process for fraudulent administration of medications and are prohibited from leaving the country.
The management of Successfully Being Heart Italiano also assured that they reinforced measures to “prevent (that) situations of this nature” from being repeated in the future.
Beyond subtraction
But as if the alleged theft of the medications were not enough, The use that the perpetrators of the crime would have given them has caused a stir.
The anesthetics were consumed “outside the medical procedure, without clinical indication, without monitoring and in areas outside of any healthcare practice,” according to the judicial documents to which the newspaper La Nación would have had access.
In parallel, the local press began to broadcast WhatsApp audios attributed to doctors in which they talk about sedatives were used at private parties organized by a small group of health professionals.
In these communications, the interlocutors speak of “controlled trips.” That is, for a sum of money – some journalistic versions mention amounts of up to US$3,000 – Clients were offered medications to achieve degrees of “extreme relaxation.”.
For the “trips” infusion pumps were used and a person was designated to assist the participants in the event of apnea, a serious side effect of these drugs.
The other thesis suggests that sedatives were used in sex parties, the TN channel published.
Since both propofol and fentanyl are used in these meetings, the Argentine media dubbed them “Propofest.”
According to the information obtained by La Nación, Zalazar would have participated in these parties. However, this version has not been confirmed either by the Prosecutor’s Office or by the court that has the case.
To avoid being discovered, the plot would have issued false medical certificates so that the health professionals who participated could avoid the mandatory anti-doping controls in the sector.
“He paid with his life because he saw something”
The discovery of Betancourt’s body last Friday has revived the scandal.
The body of the nurse, who had recently moved to Buenos Aires and was looking for work, was found in circumstances similar to those of Zalazar: in his home and surrounded by medications for in-hospital use.
However, acquaintances of Betancourt denied that he was involved in any irregularity and suggested that his death could have been orchestrated by those involved in the scandal of the “Propofest”.
“I knew more and they created a movie scene”Daniela Fernández, a friend of the deceased, told the newspaper La Nación.
“Edu (Eduardo) was the most empathetic and beautiful person, and not because he was my friend, but because that was how he lived. His co-workers and his patients loved him. I only know that he did not want to be part of something; there are many high-status people, a lot of money involved,” he added.
To justify her statements, the nurse’s friend asserted that it is very difficult to self-inject propofol.
This scandal is not the first to affect Argentine health.
At the end of last year, another episode broke out after it was learned that some 87 people died after the administration of contaminated fentanyl in different health centers.
Investigations indicated that at least 300,000 vials of fentanyl were contaminated by ultra-resistant bacteria and were distributed in different medical centers in the South American country.
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