The autopsy showed that it was the cause death mother (37), who died on childbirth On April 17, in the Vranje Health Center, the uterus ruptured with consequent bleeding, the Higher Public Prosecutor’s Office in Vranje announced. They state that this means that it can be a case of negligent provision of medical assistance, which can be qualified as a serious offense against human health, “Južne vesti” states.
The Higher Prosecutor’s Office states that, after they have seen the police report and the findings of the Institute of Forensic Medicine, the case will be forwarded to the Basic Public Prosecutor’s Office in Vranje, which is responsible for the criminal offense of serious crime against human health.
The police officers also collected the necessary information from the husband of the deceased M. A, who demanded that the competent state authorities determine the cause of death and joined the criminal prosecution, if it is determined that someone is criminally responsible for the death of his wife, according to the statement of VJT Vranje.
Let us remind you that after the woman in labor died during childbirth, the Higher Public Prosecutor’s Office announced that the Vranje Health Center had committed a number of irregularities, as well as that the death had not been reported to the police or the Prosecutor’s Office.
The inspection of the Ministry of Health ordered an internal control of the work check, and then an external check of the work, but there are no details about those checks.
Six days after the death of the woman in labor, the head of the Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics, Dragan Veličković, was also dismissed by the decision of the director of the Vranje Health Center, Saša Đorđević, but they did not state the reason for the dismissal.
Deaths are a regular occurrence in Serbian healthcare
Tragedies related to women giving birth in the past few years were not rare in Serbia.
Protests were also held, but there was no improvement in the treatment of women in labor.
At the beginning of 2021, Milica Filipović from Šabac received difficult news in the “National Front” – the baby she was carrying suffocated, so an abortion had to be performed.
“Beyond all humanity, that whole process ended in the toilet, I was alone, without staff, without a doctor, without any help.” “Given where I was, I was expecting it, and with all that, I experienced being insulted,” said Milica.
The inspection control did not find anything objectionable in this, and Milica received information that “miscarriages in the ward are a common thing.”
“I sued the institution ‘Narodni Front’ and after several years, there is no epilogue, nothing happened.” “I was not heard, witnesses were not heard, I am not aware that any of the employees were heard,” added Milica.
Maja Simić Simeunović has a similar story about trauma in the People’s Front.
“They woke me up in intensive care.” “When I first asked what happened to the baby, they told me that the baby did not survive and that I suffered three uterine ruptures,” she described.
She warned them that the first vaginal birth did not go smoothly and that the child was large. They told her that a caesarean section was not an option, but they induced a natural birth with drugs.
“After that, at 1:00 p.m., my doctor said that he had to go to a private practice and that he was leaving me and my delivery to another doctor. Around 1:15 p.m., I started howling in pain, moaning. I wanted to let everyone know that something is wrong and that something needs to be done. However, it was only at 2:20 p.m. that one of the midwives noticed that something was wrong with my child’s heartbeat,” says Maja Simić Simeunović.
And when an emergency C-section was performed, it was already too late for the baby who had suffocated in the amniotic fluid.
“First of all, I’m fighting because I want someone to answer for my child’s death. No one can tell me – it’s happening, or some other absurd answer.” I believe that this must not happen in the 21st century,” she emphasized.
Obstetric violence is a regular occurrence
Marica Mihajlović from Sremska Mitrovica also experienced the tragedy.
She accused the doctor from the General Hospital in that city of the death of her newborn baby due to what she said was negligent and violent treatment during the delivery.
The investigation showed that the death occurred due to a violent birth.
After the publication of this story in the media, a protest was held in Sremska Mitrovica “So that no woman should experience the fate of Marica Mihajlović”.
After protests and confessions of several women about obstetric violence who survived, as well as accusations that certain doctors are responsible for the death of several babies, Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić received Marica Mihajlović from Šid, who recently went public with her story. He promised this married couple financial assistance from the state, and it is interesting that he stated that he had insight into the statements of the competent persons.
Frequent obstetric violence in Serbia was also covered by foreign media.
The French news agency AFP published the confession of Biljana Čičić-Stanić, who suffered violence and humiliation during the birth of her son.
Čičić-Stanić said that they tied her to the bed, and the nurses pressed her stomach with their elbows.
The doctors and nurses insulted and shouted at her, and the whole procedure was “very violent”, Čičić-Stanić told AFP.
“They put you in bed and ask you to lie still, while someone forcefully opens your cervix, pierces the membrane and silences you,” she added.
The story is familiar to many in Serbia, where violence against maternity and gynecological patients is still common, according to experts, AFP reported.
As it is concluded, as elsewhere in the Balkans, due to patriarchal values and a weak legal system, medical violence against women often goes under the radar.
Tags: Death due uterine rupture Serbia problem maternity hospitals
-
