Hospital Saint Collette

Hospital Saint Collette matters to the investigation in two sharply different ways: it is where children in the Tremond family died under pediatric care, and where Yolanda Berrueta is treated after the explosion at her children’s tomb. The hospital’s significance lies not in any suggestion that it caused the deaths, but in the questions its clinical decisions raise: what the children died of, who determined that cause, and why no autopsy was performed.

Definition and Setting

Hospital Saint Collette is a medical institution with a pediatrics department headed by Lisa Tremond. The narrative associates it with care from birth, hospital deaths, and the treatment of a gravely injured patient. It does not describe the building’s physical layout or establish the hospital as the setting for every conversation about the cases; its importance is institutional and investigative rather than architectural.

That distinction matters because the same institution enters the plot through different forms of evidence. In the Tremond children’s case, the hospital is linked to their treatment and deaths, while Lisa’s account explains the medical judgment and family request behind the absence of an autopsy. Later, it becomes the place where Amaia Salazar seeks information about Yolanda’s condition and arranges to speak with her. The hospital thus connects clinical records and professional responsibility to a witness whose testimony may help the inquiry move forward.

Pediatric Care and the Disputed Cause of Death

Lisa Tremond is identified as the hospital’s head of pediatrics and as the doctor who treated the children from birth. When Amaia is given the opportunity to question her, Amaia asks why the bodies were not autopsied, since she understands autopsy to be the usual procedure in sudden infant deaths. Lisa answers that the children died in a hospital, that she was with them, and that their deaths resulted from pulmonary deficiencies present from birth—not from sudden infant death syndrome.

Lisa separates that claimed cause from the reason no autopsy took place. She says Yolanda, devastated by the deaths, pleaded that the children not be subjected to the procedure and that their suffering not be compounded. Lisa acknowledges knowing the protocol but says she was also the children’s grandmother and stands by her decision. The account therefore places professional judgment, kinship, and a bereaved mother’s request in direct tension. It explains why an autopsy was omitted, but does not make the omission equivalent to proof that the medical conclusion was wrong.

The disagreement also exposes a consequential discrepancy: Yolanda had declared that the children died of sudden infant death syndrome, whereas Lisa tells Amaia that they died of congenital pulmonary deficiency. The narrative supplies Lisa’s explanation and identifies her as both treating physician and grandmother; it does not resolve the discrepancy through an autopsy. The hospital is therefore tied to a question of evidentiary limits as much as to medical care: the account of the cause exists, but the examination Amaia expects is absent.

Yolanda’s Treatment After the Explosion

After the explosion at her children’s tomb, Yolanda is taken to Hospital Saint Collette. When Amaia calls for information, she is told that Yolanda is in serious condition and in surgery, with no further update available at that point. The detail establishes the immediate severity of Yolanda’s injuries and initially leaves Amaia waiting for news rather than able to question her.

Later, after returning home, Amaia learns that Yolanda is out of danger and has been transferred to a ward. The change is important: a patient first described as gravely ill and undergoing surgery has survived and is recovering, making a future interview possible. Amaia nevertheless does not press for immediate contact when she learns that Yolanda is improving; she is advised that it is prudent to wait.

When Amaia is finally permitted to visit the following morning, Yolanda is not in the room where the nurse expected her to be. Amaia checks the room number, then sees Yolanda coming along the corridor with a nurse. Yolanda can walk, but the nurse supports her at the arm and waist. Cuts mark her face; a medical patch covers her left eye and extends toward her ear, while a bulky dressing and sling cover much of her arm. The injuries make the explosion’s aftermath visible in the hospital corridor, even as her ability to walk signals some recovery. The nurse explains that Yolanda had been taken to another floor for wound care.

Hospital Access and the Investigation

The hospital’s role extends beyond emergency treatment because Amaia’s access to Yolanda is delayed, then formally arranged. After examining photographs connected to the investigation, Amaia calls Hospital Saint Collette to ask whether she can speak with Yolanda. The response that Yolanda is better but should not yet be disturbed prevents Amaia from asking her question directly. Instead, Amaia calls Yolanda’s father, whose contact details she has kept, and asks to meet him urgently.

A later update confirms that the hospital has accepted Amaia’s request to visit Yolanda at ten the next morning. That appointment eventually brings Amaia face to face with her, although treatment elsewhere in the hospital briefly complicates locating her. These details make the hospital a practical threshold in the inquiry: Yolanda’s condition governs when she can be questioned, while nursing and treatment routines shape where Amaia finds her.

During the hospital encounter, Yolanda explains that she had written to courts, the ombudsman, and the president of Navarra asking for permission to open her children’s tomb. A woman who identified herself as a judge’s secretary contacted her, met her in a café, heard the details, and secured her an appointment with a judge. Yolanda’s account gives Amaia a new procedural lead, although the meeting that produced it took place outside the hospital. The hospital is where the recovering witness can recount that chain of events, not the place where the legal contact originated.

Narrative Significance

Hospital Saint Collette brings two kinds of uncertainty into view. In the children’s case, clinical care and Lisa’s professional account coexist with an unperformed autopsy and differing descriptions of the cause of death. In Yolanda’s case, the hospital provides treatment and a gradual return to contact after the explosion, but recovery does not itself answer the questions driving Amaia’s investigation.

The institution consequently serves as more than a backdrop for illness. Its routines—surgery, transfer to a ward, wound care, and limits on visiting—set the pace at which a crucial witness can re-enter the inquiry. At the same time, its pediatric authority is part of the case Amaia is trying to understand. The hospital links care with the boundaries of what can be established: one account of the children’s deaths is given, but the missing autopsies leave that account without the examination Amaia expects.