Day 5 more inquiries at Giulesti

Day 5... and the unbelievable stupidity and endless incompetence of everyone involved is seen as clear as day. I had been imagining the door to the babies, locked tight and only possible to open with a swipe key (in the pocket of the absent assistant chief) was a heavy wooden one. Not so! It had a window in it.

Floreena pulled this from a pro-tv show site. It not only describes but shows on video the imbecility, the chaos, the stupidity of all people present in front of that door scurrying back and forth, back and forth not knowing what to do and finally doing nothing at all but scurry. The smoke gets thicker (by now the temperature in the babies room is around 200°- hotter than my oven at gas mark 7) and only then does someone break the glass. Finally. An example of annihilation of common sense and survival instinct of all those there present - and captured on film.

(Photo: Adevarul) More odours of dodgy fish: It has come to light that the ten doctors from Israel called by City Hall arrived at G. Alexandrescu hospital to treat the babies, armed with dressings - but nobody knew their names including Dan Enescu (pictured left) nor were expecting them, he writes in Adevarul. These doctors, these professionals from Israel who had dropped everything to come and help these innocent victims of idiocy, incompetence and neglect were treated appallingly. Dan Enescu says he had no idea what they were doing there, this "commando" from Israel. He said he called the Town Hall, the College of Physicians but noone knew their names. So, I was right at the end of Wednesday's post: they were called as a smoke screen, used - to show the international community that they were getting some help, a bit of medical muscle, if you like, more credibility to salvage a destroyed reputation. Cover up. When the Israeli doctor said 'there's nothing we can do,' he really meant it. There was nothing they could do if they weren't even allowed to approach the babies. Rusine!!!!

Far worse this morning is the shocking hidden camera incident aired on Realitatea.net: The employee from the maternity unit who was supposed to have checked the quality of work done by the electrician (contractor or hospital employee - we don't know) admits that he wasn't qualified for the job and that he was duped by those who had done so three days prior to the tragedy. THREE DAYS. "I am not a specialist and I told them" sic [to check the equipment] he said. He adds that he doesn't know whether the electricians did their jobs or not, whether they were paid nor the state of the equipment following the afore-mentioned check. But that's not the shocking bit. The shock comes when the maternity employee says that he had worked at Guilesti for 34 years, "a man's life", and was certain that the premature babies should not have survived anyway. "Copiii astia trebuia sa moara", he said to the reporter, unaware of the hidden camera - "these babies were supposed to die".

However, the man is much more understanding when it comes to the AWOL nurse who left her job leaving the babies unattended. But he clearly has no idea what he's talking about. "This poor woman went to change", he says of Florentina Carstea and then goes on to mention "the disappearance of a key" - there's no key, it was a swipe card, and a very strong back draft due to the explosion which blew the door off. Idiot - there was no explosion and a baby's father broke the door down. How off can you get and where the hell do they get these idiots?! Why interview morons? Hardly educates the public, does it. But it does show the heartlessness, the insensitivity and the lack of compassion rife at Gulesti Maternity Hospital. His callous words really sum it all up in a nutshell.

Realitatea has a petition to sign today demanding that hospitals be inspected and checked etc etc to avoid this ever happening again. I signed, though what good it will do...

The director of administration within the hospital under the Town Hall, Marius Savu (the same cretin who suggested moving the surviving babies in critical condition to Israel on Tuesday) has once again hit jackpot in the Idiotissimo Stakes declaring to Gandul that even if there had been smoke detectors, it wouldn't have made any difference to the babies. He was rocked too close to the wall when he was a baby himself, that one... what a thing to say. Unbelievable, he adds that they have water sprinklers at the Foisor hospital and to install them is "vetry difficult and necessitates a special installation in the whole building... Yes, Mr Savu. In the WHOLE BUILDING! The building we are talking about is a HOS-PI-TAL... In hospitals, one needs water sprinklers, fire extinguishers and smoke detectors. Why? Coz in hospitals, there are things called oxygen tanks and other things called machines that bleep, flash and make noises. They are both fire hazards. Yes! Astonishing to learn this so late in ones career, but there you have it. I promise. This guy, closely tying with Mirela Ranga (the medical director of Giulesti who said that fire detectors were not mandatory yesterday), will probably take the cup for THE most incompetent person on a level of neurones since I started to cover this story. Every time he opens his mouth, something stupid pops out. He's quite talented really.

The same superb article goes on to show (and this is why I love Gandul and am so glad they now also have an English section) how much money would be required in state allocation to prevent such a tragedy ever happening again at Giulesti. Here is the breakdown of what would be required financially in euros:

Main panel: 310 euros; 4 detectors: 20x4 = 80 euros; Fire button: 13 euros; Alarm/siren: 32 euros; Cala estetic (? what's that - a covering maybe to hide the wires?): 15 euros

Grand total: 455 euros. Add VAT and that gives an overall 564 euros

All hospitals without a security system could have one for a maximum of 764 euros (3,200 lei) and maintenance would cost around 150 lei per month depending on the system. A hospital would need to pay a total sum of approximately 3,800 lei a year including maintenance and insurance.  In order that every hospital would benefit from a necessary security system, the government would need to allocate 1,637,800 lei per year. Mr Savu, 5 million lei was given to each family to 'compensate' their dead child while Boc gave 5 million EUROS to his deputies... stop moaning and whinging about difficulties, price, costs. Firstly, it's a lie and secundo, it's very vulgar. Excellent article from Gandul, there. Bravo.

This morning, I received an email asking why I keep on with this story, why do I bother. Well, because I am appalled, revolted, disgusted by everything I read concerning this tragedy in the country of my heart. The innocents that died horribly as a direct result of idiocy, stupidity and glib indifference not to mention incompetence, the babies that still fight for their lives in unimaginable pain and suffering and those that will be victims in future catastrophes until something gets done. As long as noone moves a finger, accepts it's all very sad but there's no solution, then there won't be. The international community has little idea of life in Roumania and much less, life in the hospitals. For us here, it is unimaginable. It needs to be known. Lessons need to be learned. And the people of Roumania need to also know that they have not been forgotten - that this disaster has touched us and that we, too, are so shocked and horrified that we want to help. I cannot help in any way at all, really for my Roumanian is paltry, I am no longer a nurse so cannot work there as such and I am not even Roumanian except by heart and my deep love for the country. But I can write. As long as my friends and loved ones continue to send me articles and videos asking me to post them, publish them, spending hours translating them for me so that I may share them with you, then I will...and I will keep doing so until there IS something good that comes out of this unpardonable state of affairs of burnt babies and grieving parents with its trail of incapacity and nonchalent lack of resignation from the minister of health, Cseke Attila...and I will aslo keep pounding my contacts in the international media, sending these posts and your comments so that what is happening and how you feel is not only known but is readable, visible and tangible. I won't stop. I promise.

Comments

[Nicole]

Oare acest popor a devenit chiar atat de egoist, de superficial, de lash? Oare oamenii nu se implica decat daca ii priveste personal? N-am vazut pana acum o manifestatie de protest in fata ministerului Sanatatii, Parlament sau Cotroceni privind felul in care sunt distribuite fondurile pentru sanatate.
Impotenta, lipsa de initiativa a celor ce se perindau in fata usii este de necrezut cand te uiti la acel video..
Oamenii dau "spaga" crezand ca pot cumpara o ingrijire mai buna si poate ca asa este, dar "in the long run" fac un deserviciu tuturor. Este inadmisibil ca o oficialitate sa declare ca personalul sanitar o duce bine cu salariul de mizerie si bacsisul (ca asta este) dela pacienti.
I wonder if Romanians have really become so selfish, so dependent, so apathic. It's hard to believe how many onlookers were moving in front of the door and nobody thought of breaking the window.. You see the smoke enveloping the hallway and people still wonder what to do..
I have this feeling that people get involved only when directly affected. No, it's more than a feeling, I know how friends of mine reacted when faced with a problem: if it doesn't concern them directly, they don't get involved..
I wonder if there will be any protest rallyes in front of the Ministry of Health, Parliament or Cotroceni. I wonder if people will protest the cuts to medical care and the Euro125 mill. "gift" to the Republic of Moldova, lavishly given by Basescu.. The money should have been spent domestically but no, Romanians are arrogant, "fuduli" .. they have to show how generous they are with their neighbors, they can spare the money.
And then, one can ask: why spend all this time writing about such a tragedy when the public's mantra is "merge si asa" ~kind of "it's all right", it happens in other countries too.. Yes, in India

[Dan]

Ma inebuneste imaginea cu multimea de pe hol, cand bebelusii ardeau si nu s-a gasit nimeni sa tasneasca prin geamul usii sa-i salveze...
Cadrele medicale si bodiguarzii veneau si plecau...
Se puteau castiga 15 minute vitale...