In a nutshell

To watch absolutely: In memorium ingerasilor de la maternitatea Giulesti... heartbreaking...

And this video from Pro-TV - a reconstruction of events... the burnt out incubators and those tiny little fingers and toes... I wonder what the point is of such a reconstruction, which will cost 60,000 euros? We know how the fire started, where, why it was allowed to go berserk and what went wrong. How analysing calcified machinery is going to lend something to the investigation, I cannot imagine. We also learn from Nine O'Clock that only 3 out of the 21 hospitals in Bucharest have fire warning equipment and that Oprescu says funds for hospital renovations will reach 38 million euros...

Discrepancies continue to ooze from the media, eg. the whole issue of when the a/c was inspected - 20th July? 3 days before the tragedy? The length of time Florentina Carstea was away from her post - 40 minutes? 12? Newspapers say the investigation is now closed. Chief Investigator Marius Iacob says they continue to dig for more details and that it's far from over.

(Photo: Agerpres) What is sure is that Florentina Carstea is tonight under preventive arrest for the next 24 hours (Observator). She was lead away in handcuffs and shall be charged tomorrow. Though I agree that she is guilty of gross negligence which lead to manslaughter, she is by no means alone in this sorry story. Mirela Ranga and Bogdan Marinescu should be standing there alongside her, their hands equally chained, facing an uncertain future. But so far, there has been no mention of anyone else - Iacob once again said that the investigation would continue.

Evz.ro has an interesting article today about schools for medical assistants (thank you, Floreena) in Roumania. Jobs are available for those with connections or those who can pay the spaga (not said but meant) to get positions. These people have the lives of others in their hands. The article explains how no-one in the system has ever been psychologically evaluated, personality tests are never given and neither are aptitude tests. If Florentina Carstea had been, it could have changed a great deal for leaving her charges was an erroneous judgement on her part, to say the least. Before being hired, everyone should have to go through some kind of psychological evaluation to determine whether they are applying because they have a vocation, or whether there is some other motive - money being one of them, for although the salaries are paltry, spaga is a foregone and habitual second income which pays pretty well. Becoming a medical assistant these days has become far easier due to so many private schools training assistants for profit. The article says that since so many factories across the country have been closed due to bankruptcy, the unemployed women (and men, too) have had to find ulterior employment - many have turned to the medical field, becoming qualified as medical assistants. They end up as pretty low quality ones according to the article. Where did they train? How good are the schools? And can their qualifications be bought? Such is the article and makes very interesting reading.

(Photo: Mirela Ranga and Bogdan Marinescu: Adevarul) For now, I will close, wondering how Florentina Carstea is feeling spending her first night - perhaps the first of many - behind bars, and how Ranga and Marinescu along with Savu and Cseke are spending their evenings. Do they consider that they are off the hook? Will Carstea carry the can for this whole sorry mess? Although I would like nothing better than to see her prosecuted for her part in the tragedy, she is by no means the only one responsible. I have no confidence in the Roumanian justice system, however, and await Iacob's next communication with baited breath. Someone was bound to be a scape-goat, someone pretty lowly with no connections and little power - Florentina Carstea seems the ideal choice....

(Oh - and a post script - I want to cuddle this fireman... He puts those guilty of the Giulesti fire as well as those in government to the very epitome of shame. How good it is to read such compassion, such goodness at a time when we have been witness to so much cold indifference, heartlessness and selfish buck-passing)

Comments

[Dan]

I have no idea what we could do but I can tell you what I do right now: since I also speak some Romanian, I'm going to comment where ever possible. I wish I could contact someone form CNN.. It's so obvious that the articles you qouted are written or translated by a romanian..
I am disappointed that not many people write or expose the people in charge. And I so much worry that in the end, Florentina Carstea will pay the highest price and all the others, the real culporits, just a reprimand or a slap on the wrist.. and they will happily go back to their practices and make more money.

[sairj]

Dear Dan
Any ideas? What do you know about Simona Parvu? How did FC end up with her as her lawyer? Do you have anyone who would represent her in mind without risking the wrath of the powers that be? If you do then yell. What we can do is keep screaming the guilt of the others to the international press in the meantime - yes, Savu, Marinescu and Ranga, who have no shame, no conscience and as you rightly say - plenty of connections. I'd be happy to help with a petition - where do we send it? No, I am under no illusion re: Marinescu at least and he will protect Ranga...sadly no naive at all, but I would be happier if I were... They will get off scott free. At the very most, a couple more nurses will be hauled across the coals - the one who went to assist in the birth leaving FC to cover her ward which meant neglecting her own and maybe another couple who also had a swipe key but did nothing to help save the babies or facilitate evacuation...nothing more than that.

[Dan]

who should be arrested. Next to her should stand the management of the hospital: dr. Marinescu, Ranga and the administrator.. These are the people in charge, not her. But she is now the scapegoat because all the others have connections. Dr. Marinescu is a friend of Dr. Oprescu, the present mayor of Bucharest. Do you think they will allow his colleague to be prosecuted. You must be naive if you do.
In Romanian they say that "acaru' Paun" will pay, that is the lowest in rank or institution.
I wish we could do something fore her defense.

[Nicole]

Of course the medical assistant has remorses but I think she is a good person, otherwise she would not have embraced this profession. She is somewhat guilty because she didn't exercise better judgment: she should have called someone to substitute for her while she went to the bathroom.
HOWEVER: she is not the main culprit, she is just the scapegoat and I hope she has a good lawyer. GUILTY are the people who did the scheduling; GUILTY is dr.Ranga who is totally inept, GUILTY is dr.Marinescu who is probably more interested in running his fertility business than managing the hospital.
GUILTY is the entire management who did not bother to assure that pacients are safe in case of fire. Dr. Ranga's statement that smoke detectors were not mandatory shows how incompetent she is as medical director. Of course, smoke deterctors and fire extinguishers are of utmost importantce in any hospital. GUILTY is also the hospital administrator, that moron who spent 34 years there without being a "specialist" in electrical stuff and who took for good the word of another incompetent employee who made believe he checked the electrical load. All of them should share the guilt

[Nicole]

My first reaciton, of course, was to blame the medical assistant however I changed my mind after reading comments to stories shown on Romanian tv by spectators with first hand experience of what's going on in ALL hospitals: physicians smoking right under the sign that forbids smoking, others drinking or sleeping when on call; medical assistants who gossip in the halllways and rebuke you if you have a question or incapable to answer one and, the worst of all (if there can be a worst) the flagrant nepotism going on in ALL hospitals where entire families work there, where job applicants are hired after bribing HR. Once hired, nobody cares if the patient is treated with respect, neglected or mistreated.. The stories I read can make one's blood boil and now comes the College of Doctors who blames Florentina Carstea for not doing her job. I hope her union hires a good lawyer to defend her considering first of all that the hospital should have had more personnel on duty. BTW, a medical assistant makes, on average,600 RON ~about 150 Euros? And pacients wonder why these people are grumpy and fed up?