A couple from Ialoveni district has looked for justice in courts of law and in medical institutions for over a year. The birth of their long-awaited child resulted in a series of harsh challenges and roads to doctors in the country and abroad. The parents of the child, who, at the age of one year and a half, cannot walk and has convulsions almost daily, said the girl suffered a serious injury at birth, but the medical personnel to blame for this are trying to hide this thing.
The child’s father Radu Clichici has told IPN that his daughter was born at the maternity hospital in Ialoveni in April 2015 and nothing predicted a tragedy as pregnancy went smooth and medical examinations showed the fetus developed appropriately. During delivery, owing to the unprofessionalism and incompetence of the doctor, the child suffered spastic asphyxia. The doctors assured him that the girl inspired amniotic fluid and will get well soon. The next day, at the father’s insistence, the child was transferred to the intensive care section of the Mother and Child Institute in Chisinau. After a series of examinations, the child was diagnosed with meningitis, but this diagnosis was later excluded and an infection during pregnancy that caused complications to the child was invoked. But the tests and examinations recommended during pregnancy showed nothing suspect.
Radu Clichici said that after the child was discharged from the Mother and Child Institute, as the doctors could not make an accurate diagnosis and could not forecast how the child will develop, they went abroad to have some tests. Russian doctors confirmed that the girl suffered a serious injury at birth and a part of her brain was severely damaged. When they returned to the country, the parents filed a complaint to the Ministry of Health. On their own initiative, they asked for a legal examination and this showed in three months that the child was injured at birth and the doctors, after incorrectly assessing the girl’s state of health, administered to her a vaccine that worsened her state.
According to the girls’ father, a council of doctors convoked by the Ministry of Health concluded that it could be a genetic disorder. However, the tests recommended during pregnancy showed that the child developed normally. At the age of one year and a half, the girl does not walk and does not speak and needs costly treatment, including for controlling the fits. As both of the parents have to look after the child, the family remained without a source of income. Given their difficult situation, they hope the authorities will cover the costs of treatment, while the personnel that destroyed their child’s life will be removed from the medical system and will be held accountable. Radu Clichici said there are also other families that suffered as a result of the negligence of this doctor. The man asked that the doctor should be suspended for the period of the investigation, but this wasn’t done.
In response to an inquiry by IPN, the Ministry of Health said that based on the complaint filed by the girl’s parents, a commission of different specialists was set up to analyze the situation and this recommended to additionally examine the child so as to make the clinical diagnosis.
“On August 19-26, 2016, there were studied the results of the clinical and paraclinical examinations performed on the child at the Mother and Child Institute. As a result, the enlarged medical council that involved the medical director, head of the neurology section, geneticist and doctor on guard at the medical institution decided that a series of additional tests are needed for making an accurate clinical diagnosis and excluding a congenital abnormality,” the Ministry says in its response. The parents were invited to be admitted to the neurology section of the Mother and Child Institute and the final examination results will be made known to them.
Contacted by IPN, director of the Ialoveni District Hospital Mihail Cotovan said this case is dealt with by a ministerial commission and, when the conclusions are made public, particular decisions will be taken. As regards the father’s request to suspend the doctor who assisted the delivery from his post, Mihail Cotovan said there are no reasons for taking such a decision as the given doctor has worked for 40 years and saved hundreds of lives. A decision to this effect could be taken only after the commission’s conclusions become available.
The investigating officer dealing with this case Andrei Popov has told IPN that the case is being investigated and he cannot provide more details at this stage.
