Two children, a 2-year-old boy and a 6-year-old girl, are brain dead following surgical interventions performed at the Constanța County Emergency Clinical Hospital, and their families accuse serious medical errors. In this context, the Minister of Health, Alexandru Rogobete, stated that he discussed with the president of the College of Doctors.
Currently, the two children are hospitalized “Grigore Alexandrescu” from Bucharest, where they are monitored by specialized medical teams.
The cases come just a week after the same medical facility was embroiled in another scandal, accused of failing to properly treat a 33-year-old man.
The Minister of Health, Alexandru Rogobete, stated that he discussed with the president of the College of Doctors, an institution that “he self-referred and will take steps to verify the therapeutic conduct, an analysis of the medical act itself”, reports Ziua de Constanța.
The Minister of Health sends the Control Corps to Constanța
At the same time, the Ministry of Health, through the Control Body, will verify the hospital’s activity from an administrative point of view, and the State Sanitary Inspection will analyze compliance with protocols regarding the prevention and control of nosocomial infections.
Last Sunday, the minister had already announced the sending of the Control Body to the Constanța County Hospital, after it was found that, in some wards, over 70% of the staff benefit from duty exemptions or night shifts.
“It is clear that there are certain administrative dysfunctions there,” pointed out Alexandru Rogobete, stating that he is waiting for the conclusions of the checks to be able to take administrative measures.
The Constanța Emergency County Clinical Hospital has not sent an official point of view until now, but the hospital management would have self-reported and an internal investigation would have been initiated to clarify the aspects related to the case of the two children.
The testimonies of parents whose children have reached brain death
The first case is that of a two-year-old boy, who, on December 17, arrived at the emergency room with intense abdominal pain. After initially inconclusive investigations, a CT scan diagnosed intestinal volvulus with necrosis – that is, twisting of the intestines – for which the child underwent emergency surgery, but his condition quickly worsened.
“Since he arrived in intensive care, we could only see him after 2 and a half hours, and the ladies who were with him immediately after he left the operating room told us in a rather blunt tone: he is very serious!”, said Valeriu Briceag, the child’s father, according to Știrile Pro TV.
Through a lawyer, the family will file complaints with the College of Physicians and the Ministry of Health.
“I noticed that her face was getting more and more bruised. He took her in his hands, to see if she had any reaction, they took her, took her to the operating room, resuscitated her, intubated her. The little girl woke up from the sedation. The doctor decided to remove her ventilator, took it off and put her on oxygen and then she caused facial and chest edema. It also destroyed her trachea, and cardiac arrest and edema cerebral, since I came here to Bucharest the doctors did not give him a chance to live”, said Florentina Iancu, the mother of the 6-year-old girl, operated on for appendicitis in the same medical unit.
