Bogdan Marinescu

(Photo: Cotidianul) Apart from knowing that Bogdan Marinescu is the director of Giulesti Maternity Hospital, is being represented by prolific lawyer Marian Nazat and is still free 'while investigations continue' even if he is one of those majorly responsible for the tragedy of 16th August, what else do we know about this man? A great friend of Mayor of Bucharest, Sorin Oprescu. Okay, yes, but we need more.

Here we go.... Bogdan Marinescu and Sorin Oprescu have been friends since the communist era. Both are children of former nomenklatura. Bogdan Marinescu is the son of the former Minister of Health (1954-66), Voinea Marinescu, a surgeon who finished his studies in Leningrad (now St. Petersburg) and worked in several hospitals in the former Soviet Union, before returning home where he became a close associate of the former communist dictator, Gheorghiu-Dej. Sorin Oprescu is the son of the Securitate general, Mircea Oprescu, one of the torturers of political prisoners under the Dej regime. Mircea Oprescu became chief of security at only 24 years old and part of the Mobile Brigade led by NKVD colonel (Soviet Security) Alexandru Nicolschi who "hunted down" anti-Communist fighters.

THIS article not only tells the above story but also begins with a declaration that the incubators at Giulesti Maternity came from China and were a 'possible arrangement' between Oprescu and Marinescu. I'm not sure how true this is, but...

Marinescu was vice-minister of health in 1990, so close to politics all the way down the line and Oprescu was the personal physician to Ion Iliescu. Both Marinescu and Oprescu were influential members of PSD. It is also mentioned in one of the many comments that Oprescu was a boozing buddy of Nicu Ceausescu, a fellow school-mate. 

Here are some opinions about Marinescu from mothers who had the misfortune to give birth in his so-called 'care' - pretty mixed as one would expect, but the negative comments are many and very damning. One woman says she had to be induced to 'accomodate' Marinescu - in other words, he wouldn't come to assist at night or at the weekend, so her delivery had to be during the day and she was induced to give birth two days before her due date so that he would be present...isn't that unbelievable? Another woman who started to dilate at 1h in the morning was given diazepam to knock her out so that she would not give birth until the morning - the woman was in agony for 7h and it's a miracle her little girl was born normal. Of course, she was unable to feed her own baby due to the diazepam. Another says that Marinescu has the nickname 'Marinescu Mengele' because he experiments on women. One more says that he's not worth tuppence, is incapable and irresponsible.   

This comment is informative, educational and...shocking: "All physicians with seniority also have their private clinics. If you have a medical problem and the physician knows you can afford it, he pretends he's busy and schedules you at his private clinic. After the consultation and payment, he treats you at the state hospital so that the insurance will pay for the procedure. In principal, the medical care is paid for by the state but the physician is the one who pockets the money. This is the law. He charges you at the clinic and he treats you at the hospital. Moreover he sells you ovarian stimulant drugs from a 'friendly' pharmacy. So, the fertilisation and embryonic transfers are done at the hospital not costing him a penny but he pockets the money himself, then charges the insurance company. It is a wretched mafia which, through greed, makes it difficult for people to bring children into the world." In other words, in vitro fertilization is big business and Giulesti is well known for it. Being such a big shot, Marinescu can afford to tell patients where to come and women think that going to his clinic gives them a better success rate.  According to Titi, it is pretty well established that Marinescu and others of his senior staff, (who have their own clinics) charge the money privately, after examination, in their own environment, but the procedure is done at the hospital  where the up-to-date equipment is located.

The list of known disasters at Giulesti Maternity runs as follows: 1) 2007: Natalia Ionescu and the malpractice controversy involving Neagu the anaesthetist who is today acting as Marinescu's replacement as director of Giulesti; 2) babies burned when bathed in floor detergent; 3) 2010: recent fire. Titi, one of the commentors, asks: "where did you find the same management over 27 years?....these sinister characters could risk life imprisonment." Viky comments on 19th August 2010, "I was a patient of these famous Giulesti doctors: Marinescu, Nicolescu and company. I was left with trauma after all the time spent to become pregnant. They are unprofessional, they are bored by the job they have to do, sour, with bitter souls and this is the impression that I had of these bigshots, as some call them." In the end, Viky was treated in Sibiu and escaped Giulesti.

This is a comment from Mircea Cartarescu: "Both my children were born at the Giulesti Maternity with 16 years difference. My son spent a week in an incubator on ITU. I can tell you therefore, with hand on heart, that the tragedy that happened was not an accident. It was bound to happen one day. The Giulesti Maternity was a place of human misery and this has not changed in 23 years since I was there the first time. In fact, it has got even worse. I cannot forget the image of those miserable wards, the lack of hot water and tranquilisers, the image of new mothers going down the stairs the day after they had given birth to see their husbands, of the medical assistants with pockets full of crumpled banknotes, of the doctors screaming at the women on the delivery tables so loud you could hear them in the hallway - “Why are you yelling? You liked it when you did it so you should like it now!” I cannot forget the babies from the incubators, their eyes covered with sticky plaster because of the UV which was later ripped off with brutality. For my wife, the experience of giving birth at Giulesti was the bitterest and the most shocking of her life. The babies who were left to burn alive in that house of horror is an extention in time of the horror of Ceausescu’s childrens’ homes who brought us approbrium of the civilised world. Something like this doesn't even happen in black Africa - in fact it doesn't happen anywhere else in the world. Where is this evil coming from? Not from two badly insulated wires, but from the short circuit in our own barbarian brains, from "the Romanian way" of contempt for our fellow humans which has come to include even our future - the children."

This is the world of Giulesti Maternity Hospital, the world that was governed for the last 27 years by Professor Bogdan Marinescu and the endless witness statements and comments speak volumes. His politics, contacts and 'sins of the fathers' don't even matter. Just knowing what went on for all these years within the walls of Giulesti Maternity, the nameless victims, the untold reams of what would be considered anywhere else as blatant malpractice, should be enough to condemn this man for the rest of his life and the key slung into a bottomless pit. The facts speak for themselves. I don't think I need to write any more.

My thanks to Florina for her tireless translations and research as always.

Comments

[sairj]

Thank you for your comment, Dan, heart felt and sincere. Indeed, the more one digs, the more one finds on corruption from the top of the system down to the bottom. It is easy to understand why spaga is so necessary and part of the philosophy in the world of hospitals (if only it ended there - but it's a way of life wherever you go from schools to justice to getting a taxi faster from A to B, getting a drivers license when you've never sat behind the wheel of a car or getting a seat in a crowded train, etc etc) - it's not just a question of low salaries but also a great deal more as you said with your friends in Timisoara...

As for Marinescu and his bigshot lawyer, indeed it proclaims his need for someone who knows how to pull strings and how to defend a guilty party adeptly... I am very fearful for Ms Carstea still behind bars and wonder what will happen when her 29 days are up (tomorrow?. The media have whipped up such hatred for her through their over exagerration and playing Mickey-Mouse court with the public as judge and jury that I fear for her safety beyond the walls of her cell...poor Florentina...in the world of bullies, it's always the weakest ones who get bashed.

[Dan]

I wonder why epople are so surprised that our doctors ask for money?One of them told em: I went to school (university here is gratis) I worked hard and had to buy my place at the hospital- paid the director and person at "cadre" lots of money, euros and lei and had to borrow this money myself. How can I pay back the loan if i do nto accept "envelopes" like someone above said? So, our hospitals do nog have the best doctors, they have the ones who can pay spaga to be admitted. This is the medical mafia that is everywhere. The mother of a firend from Timisoara told me that she had to sell a nice piece of land and she was paid 30,000 euros for this land. Her daughter had graduated from School of Medicine and wanted to work in Timisoara and not some little village. So, the mother paid the above sum but the director wanted 40,000 for this good job. They could not borrow the 10.000, so the man did them a "favour" and accepted the rest in lei and "in rate" - installments, eaqch month. Everybody knows that she had to accept envelopes so she can give the money to the head of the hospital. So, this is where we are today: the system is rotten from the top to the bottom and we, patients, are at the bottom. Unless we can take spaga, how are we going to pay the people upstaris? Of course old people, who live on pension and savings cannot afford spaga. It is a very sad situation here.
Comment: I admire Sarah, the owner of this blog, for dedicating her time to defend the assistent, Florentina Carstea and I want to say here that it is a big outrage and injustice that she is the only one that is deprived of her freedom. The main guilty person, the director of hospital, Dr. Marinescu is free and has hired a very good lawyer by the name of Nazat who who has also defended Tiriac (the tennis man) his son who was handling cocaine - buying, selling and consuming and he was found not guilty! Nazat also defended Vantu and had sucess defending him. So, Marinescu, if he hired an expensive lawyer, means that he feels he needs a very good lawyer.. My opinion.
I don't know much about the other man, Vasile Dima, the technical administrator, who is free and should be in prison because this man worked at Giulesti for very many years but he did not care how the maintenance is done and to inspect how other people did the work, they were paid to do well and not shoddy.. So, he did not supervize the people and this is how the tragedy happened: the wries were not well insulated, it was a very hot day and the wires did not hold. Maybe the accident wouldn't have happened if it was not so hot that 16 august.. God knows, but that woman, the assistent Carstea is not so guilty as our television showed it to us. The journalists only wanted to show us a scapegoat but were superficial when they did not analize why the accident happened: because our medical system is rotten to the bone, because the director should have known that the hospital has no smoke detecting equipemnt and no portable fire extinguishers. This is my opinion and I want people to know because I live here.

[Mary]

Not only scandalous, it is rotten.. Everybody is on the take and here is a recent example: this surgeon asks 1,600 euros for a pretty routine operation,to be performed in a Bucharest hospital. Later, he tells the patient's husband that he was assisted by two resident surgeons. The husband understands the apropos and brings two more evelopes the following day, approaching each one discreetly with: "Can I ask you something", while the surgeon and his helper had retired in a corner of the room.. Such a charade.. but the scene is probably repeating itself every day, everywhere in our country

[Freda]

It's unbelievable how corruption is so clever and creative. How milking the state and the people of Romania is done with such ease by the same bunch of scumbags over years and years and years and never get caught. The mayor clearly knows about it and does absolutely nothing, the ministers know about it and don't bother to lift a finger, the average person in the street knows about it but can't change the course of it anyway... The economic raping of an entire country under everyone's nose. It's so obscene, so outrageous and so utterly unbelievable...

[Eva]

The truth is that this kind of medical business is pretty normal in Romania. Doctors are used to take advantage of the equipment and facilites in the hospitals they are working. As the person writing the blog noted, doctors see their patients at their clinics, charge them accordingly and then invite them at the hospital if a procedure is necessary. Hospitals are state owned so, in the end it is the public who pays .. Dentists do it too, using state materials and expensive x-ray equipment and billing their patients as if the hospital office were they work is their own. Sa but true.. corruption at a national scale