Health Ministry's control body to investigate Floreasca Hospital surgery burn case

Health Minister Victor Costache announced on Saturday that he will send the ministry's control body to the Bucharest Floreasca Hospital to look into the case of a patient who has reportedly suffered burns to 40 percent of the body while undergoing surgery, and who is now in a serious condition; the case was made public by deputy of the Save Romania Union Emanuel Ungureanu, on his Facebook page. 

According to Ungureanu, the 66-year old female cancer patient was accidentally set ablaze by surgeon Mircea Beuran who "misused the skin disinfection substances, impregnated the surgical drapes beneath the patient with these solutions, so that the sterile surfaces and the patient's skin were set on fire at the contact with the electrocautery device." 

Ungureanu also posted on Facebook the handwritten statements of two nurses from the said medical unit, according to whom the flames had been put out with a water basin. He also said that, according to information provided to him by a nurse, the hospital management and the inspectors of the Public Health Directorate (DSP) had tried to keep the case under a lid and did not request surgeon Mircea Beuran a written statement. Victor Costache comments that it's "shocking" that the fire was quelled with the water from a basin, although the medical unit should have procedures in place for intervention in such emergencies in the operating room. 

"I learned about this incident on Friday night, from other sources. A very serious incident has happened in this hospital which is under the authority of the Health Ministry, a 66-year-old female patient is in critical condition after an unexplained surgical maneuver (...) which went unreported. The Health Minister had to learn about this from other sources. Neither the hospital's management, nor the ward management have reported this extremely serious incident to us," Minister Victor Costache told broadcaster Digi24 on Saturday; he also specified that the incident took place on Sunday, December 22. 

He went on to say that he sent a team of State Health Inspection experts coordinated by Secretary of State Horatiu Moldovan to look into the case and that they will meet on December 30 with doctor Mircea Beuran to analyze the situation. 

"As this is a potential case of medical malpractice, we cannot reveal the details. On Monday we will also take the statement of Professor Beuran. It's unexplainable how this statement was not immediately taken. (...) I don't want to cast the stone before the final result of the investigation. All aspects will be carefully analyzed and all the necessary legal measures will be taken. (...) With all the due respect for the pain of the family faced with this dramatic situation, I promise you this will be a fair and merciless investigation, but for now we cannot disclose elements of this investigation. (...) As far as I understand, the family will turn to the College of Physicians and the investigation bodies, therefore I'd be surprised if this case were covered up, as it was probably initially intended," the Health Minister said during a call-in with Digi 24. 

He stressed that the DSP Bucharest officials and the hospital management who did not inform the Health Ministry about this case will be sanctioned.