Jorge Hernández, explained that his wife 84-year-old, Christl Maria Wolte, was now unable to eat solid foods.

She was hospitalised on the 23rd of January after having suffered an ictus (stroke). Whilst she was there medical staff removed her dentures. “We don’t know why they did this,” explained Jorge.

Now, we’re not just talking about a set of choppers that you leave in a glass by your bedside overnight, but ones that were implants, secured by screws.

They didn’t immediately disappear as they were kept in a box next to her hospital bed until one morning Jorge realised that they had gone! “We don’t know if somebody took them or they were simply thrown away,” he confessed.

Then on the 8th of February she was discharged… without the valuable dentures, so Jorge reported the loss to the hospital authorities at the time. However, nothing came of it.

“They cost us 3,000 euros and had silver in them, so I asked the hospital if they could provide some provisional  dentures at their expense but the answer was stony silence.

The result is that his wife has spent the last five months eating soups, purees and yoghurts, Jorge laments.

Now, during her time in hospital she was transferred up to Granada to the Hospital Universitario Clínico San Cecilio where a surgeon was to give a second opinion; her opinion was that surgical intervention was not recommended as it would entail high risks with little benefit, and that it was best to send her home. She is attended to by a helper who comes in the mornings, afternoons and nights to take care of her hygiene needs and to change her position in bed.

Christl can’t walk or speak and has lost her memory but Jorge says that he can cope and will be able to “for a long time.” He considers that having her dentures back would make all the difference to her ‘estado de ánimos.’

Motril hospital says that it has opened an internal investigation and has enquired about whether the Health Service will pay for new dentures.

(News: Almunecar, Costa Tropical, Granada, Andalucia)