A woman who two years ago was struck by a minibus together with her daughter of only one month at a crosswalk in Chisinau wants justice to be done to her. Iulia Churavina said her child has been confined to bed and stayed in hospitals for two years. The girl was diagnosed with epilepsy. She has fits and is fed through a tube. The young woman accuses the medical staff of negligence and the police of transforming the criminal case into a contravention one. Supported by the public association “Moldova mea”, the woman filed a complaint to the Prosecutor General’s Office, asking for a broad criminal investigation and that all those to blame be held accountable.
In a news conference at IPN, Iulia Churavina related that after the accident, the driver left the place. She was the one who called the police and an ambulance, but they weren’t taken to the hospital immediately. In several hours, she called again an ambulance and she and her daughter were taken to the Mother and Child Institute, where they stayed for two weeks. The doctors examined the child superficially and didn’t subject her to magnetic resonance imaging or other special examinations even if she had fits. Later they were hospitalized again. In three months of the accident, she went to Municipal Hospital No. 1 where she had a number of recommended examinations and the doctors changed the treatment administered to her daughter. But in less than two weeks, the girl had again epileptic fits and even respiratory failure. When she was admitted to the intensive care section, the girl suffered a cardiac arrest.
Iulia Churavina said she experienced a real ordeal at the Mother and Child Institute. The medical personnel told her openly that keeping the child in intensive care is too expensive. She was often told that she should prepare morally as the child will anyway die and persuaded her to sign a document to consent to disconnecting the child from apparatus. She had to daily give bribe to nurses and also purchased some of the medicines. During two years, she spent over €20,000 on medicines and doctors. She had to sell her apartment.
The child continues to be in the hospital, currently at Municipal Hospital No. 1. Recently, the girl suffered a leg fracture and the medical personnel could not explain how this happened. The woman said she gave birth to a healthy baby, but her girl became severely disabled after that accident, also owing to the insufficient examination and inappropriate treatment.
Fiodor Ghelici, head of the public association “Moldova mea”, said this case shows the situation in the whole medical system and also in the police, which are extensively corrupt. A minister who would really bring things in medical institutions in order and would root out corruption is needed. The police officer who documented the case should be brought to justice for transforming a criminal case into a contravention one.
