Nearly ten years have passed since Concepción Villanueva was last able to see with both eyes. At the age of 57, she had surgery for a detached retina, but she could not imagine that the last clear picture of her life would be when she arrived at the health center. After the operation, he could no longer see anything out of his left eye. “They operated on me and I never saw again. And I said I couldn’t see it and they gave me no explanation,” he denounced on ABC. Conchi, as she is called around her, is one of the 125 people affected by the use of Ala Octa, a German eye drop used in eye surgeries and which is now the subject of research. The Prosecutor’s Office at the National Court announced on Wednesday that it had filed a complaint against several pharmaceutical companies linked to the drug Ala Octa after having verified adverse effects, mainly loss of vision, in patients to whom it was applied. Specifically, the investigation focuses on the German companies Alamedics GmbH & Co.KG and BSI Group Deutschland and on the company WM Bloss SA of Barcelona, respectively for the manufacturing, evaluation and marketing of the medicine. The Public Prosecutor’s Office understands that the events – reported by the association El Defensor del Paciente – may constitute crimes against public health and serious injuries, this This is why the lieutenant prosecutor of the National Court, Marta Durántez, filed a complaint in which she asks the court to collect information from people affected by drugs. It also requests that the legal persons presumed responsible be determined and that the organization chart be required so that the natural persons responsible can declare themselves under investigation. Standard Related News No What is Ala Octa? The eye drops that blinded around a hundred patients in Spain CG It was used in eye surgeries, but had to be withdrawn in 2015 “I asked for an investigation to be carried out because it affected hundreds of people. “They were going to have a retinal detachment operation and became blind,” explains Carmen Flores, president of the El Defensor del Paciente association, which initiated the investigation through a complaint. That the Public Prosecutor’s Office is investigating, he is delighted, is good news and opens the door to the recognition of the responsibility of companies linked to this drug in cases of blindness. Aemps withdrew it. Another person affected is Adolfo Aguilera who, since 2014, when he was 69 years old, has been completely blind. Since birth, he had only seen in one eye, but it was also after an operation for retinal detachment that he stopped seeing completely. “When he came out of the operation he couldn’t see and was told that at first it might be normal. But after 48 hours, we came back for the exam and there they told us that we should start seeing more clearly. “They didn’t know what was happening because the operation went well,” said their daughter, Emilia Aguilera. For several months they did all kinds of tests, but no one found the cause of his blindness. It was his doctor who called him in June 2015 to tell him the news: the Spanish Agency for Medicines and Health Products (Aemps) had withdrawn Ala Octa from the market after detecting possible cases of complications in patients. Conchi, through his lawyer, Carlos Gómez Menchaca, obtained a pioneering conviction in Spain: a conviction against Aemps for “failure to fulfill its prevention obligations in order to avoid this type of case”, in the words of the lawyer. The Health Agency had to compensate her to the tune of 25,000 euros, but for her the important thing is not the money she would exchange to be able to see her granddaughter clearly, but that justice is done to all the people concerned. Adolfo Aguilera also has a final judgment against an insurer, for which the latter must compensate him to the tune of 320,000 euros. However, he has been waiting for the money for almost a year, but it has not arrived. No money, says her daughter, will make up for what she has lost: “She has it very bad. He needs help with everything and when he goes out he feels dizzy and scared. “That means overtaking a car a little faster than usual and it starts to shake,” he laments. In 13 communities As stated in the Prosecutor’s complaint, the use of the defective medical product Ala Octa caused adverse effects in the patients to whom it was administered, such as amaurosis (situation of non-perception of light in the operated eye), atrophy of the optic nerve (optic atrophy) or retinal necrosis (death of the retina), among others. The investigation into the product uncovers defects in its manufacturing, as well as defects in safety controls of raw materials and manufactured batches. It was used in 28 health centers in 13 autonomous communities. Gómez Menchaca represents more than 100 people affected by drugs, a dozen of whom have not yet been compensated, but believes that the total figure of 125 is insufficient and that there could be more. As soon as the National Court accepts the request, he explains, he will appear with all the affected people he represents “to demand accountability”. The profile of Ala Octa’s victims, he says, is very varied: “From a 9-year-old boy who had a detached retina after hitting a football goal to older people,” he says. -he.
