The General Prosecutor’s Office
\nbrought formal charges against 10 people, 6 of them successive interim managers
\nof the hospital in Piatra Neam\u0163 (north-eastern Romania) which burned down last
\nyear, killing 10 Covid patients.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
The tragedy took place at the
\nintensive care unit of the Emergency County Hospital, where 17 patients had
\nbeen admitted in 2 wards. An anaesthetist who went into one of the burning wards
\ntrying to rescue patients suffered severe burns and had to be transferred to
\nBrussels. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
The charges include manslaughter,
\nbodily harm out of negligence, aggravated destruction out of negligence, and
\nfailure to observe workplace security and protection rules. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
Agerpres news agency reports that 2
\nnurses have been accused of leaving an open fire source unattended, while the
\nhead of the intensive care unit is accused of having failed to take measures to
\nensure ventilation. The ICU chief is also accused of having forged a memo
\nregarding the care provided to patients, jointly with another physician. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
Legal action was also brought
\nagainst the hospital itself. Prosecutors argue that after the pandemic was
\ndeclared and the hospital was turned into a COVID support unit, the hospital
\nmanagement failed to organise hospital activity properly. Specifically, the
\nmanagement did not review workplace health and security risks after the amount
\nof oxygen administered to patients in that unit was increased, and implicitly
\nthe oxygen concentration in the 2 wards rose. The defendants also failed to
\nintroduce prevention measures to ensure workplace security under the new
\ncircumstances. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
The investigation revealed that the 2
\nnurses on duty at the time, who were attending patients under oxygen therapy, left
\na lit candle unattended. This was the original source of the fire that burned
\nthe intensive care unit. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
Similar tragedies have also taken
Romanian prosecutors file criminal charges after investigating fire in a hospital<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":104,"featured_media":87244,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[37738],"tags":[35374,34731,29420,29979,28952],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-90224","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-today-in-the-news","tag-covid-19","tag-criminal","tag-fire","tag-hospital","tag-investigation"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
\nplace this year in Bucharest and Constan\u021ba (south-east). (tr. A.M. Popescu<\/em>)<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"