Andorra Court Orders Hospital to Pay €17,000 in Damages for Failing to Disclose 2005 Hepatitis C Diagnosis

Andorra's Superior Court has ordered the Andorran Health Care Service (SAAS) to pay 17,000 euros in moral damages to the family of a patient whose 2005 hepatitis C diagnosis went undisclosed by Nostra Senyora de Meritxell Hospital staff. The ruling, issued on 6 March 2026 by the administrative chamber, partially upheld the family's appeal and overturned a prior dismissal by the Tribunal de Batlles.

The court determined that the hospital breached its duty to inform the patient of the positive test result obtained during her March 2005 emergency visit for a severe respiratory issue. This omission deprived her of the chance for monitoring and possible treatment. She returned nearly six years later with abdominal swelling and leg edema—symptoms of liver cirrhosis caused by the virus—and died on 28 March 2011 after a transplant proved too late.

While acknowledging cirrhosis as the direct cause of death linked to the unnotified hepatitis C, the judges rejected a causal connection between the failure to disclose and her fatal outcome. They cited insufficient evidence that 2005 treatments—harsher than modern options, with significant side effects—would have changed the course, given her pre-existing severe lung diseases like chronic obstructive bronchitis and emphysema, plus her persistence in smoking against medical advice. The decision invoked "loss of opportunity," limiting compensation to moral harm for relatives and excluding claims for the deceased's pain, temporary incapacity, funeral costs, or medical expenses.

The breakdown awards 5,000 euros each to her two children, 2,000 euros each to her two sisters, and 1,500 euros each to her two granddaughters.

This civil outcome follows a 2022 criminal case at the Corts, where a pulmonologist was cleared of professional negligence homicide due to no proof he knew the result at discharge. That judgment highlighted deep systemic failures at the hospital, describing its processes as operating in "catastrophic" disarray.