24/04/2008 Archived Article: "Gaucín took to the streets to remember Alberto Ramírez, by Blas Gil"
More than 3.000 people demonstrated in the streets of Gaucin to honor the memory of a young man who died of peritonitis, and to demand better health services for the Valle del Genal.
The intense rain didn't stop the demonstration, held in complete silence, to protest the death of the 24 year old, Luis Alberto Ramírez, who died April 6 after having been released twice from the emergency service at the Hospital Comarcal de Ronda.
The march was held to demand better health services in the Valle del Genal, such as a second ambulance for the 15 villages in the area.
The demonstration began with a huge poster with the sentence,´Lucki somos todos´ (We are all Lucki --- the nickname of the deceased), carried by his mother, sister and brother. Others in the march were the mayors of various towns, viz, Gaucín, Teodoro de Molina; Algatocín, Benito Carrillo, and Benarrabá, Silvestre Barroso: the director of the Consorcio de Municipios de la Serranía, Francisco Márquez, and councilmen from various villages.
The demonstrators carried signs and wore tee-shirts with the photograph of the deceased. After marching through the streets they regrouped at the pabellón deportivo where a manifesto was read to demand better health services for the region.
Lucki' s sister, María José Ramírez, explained that yet another demonstration is being planned for Ronda, and that the family is denouncing the Área Sanitaria Serranía for presumed medical negligence.
The story began last March 31 when the family took the young man to Algatocín wuth vomiting, diarrhea and strong pains. The doctor said that itn could be peritonitis. He was taken to the emergency section of the hospital in Ronda, where he was kept under observationb for 24 hours, and where various tests were taken.
On March 3 he began feeling ill again, and the family called the doctor from the consulta in Gaucin, who didn't show up at the house. According to the denuncia, this doctor asked them to take his medical information to Ronda, but he couldn't be left alone. One the 5th he went back to the hospital in Rond feeling very bad, where he was given antibiootics, and then returned home a few hours later.
That same night, seeing that he was getting worse, they called the ambulance, but it was already in use, and the family trook him back tro the hospital. There he was put into intensive care, and died.
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