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Medical merits
K. Strupas has performed many unique surgeries, constantly strived to improve abdominal surgery to apply all the innovations available in the world, performed complex liver, pancreas and kidney transplantation operations, led the Lithuanian Society for Minimal Interventional Surgery, Vice President of the Association of Baltic Surgeons, and from 2013 to 2018 he ran the Santara clinics, from which he voluntarily resigned at the start of the trial. The abdominal surgeon also did an internship in Germany for five years and, upon his return, successfully applied the experience gained in Lithuania.
2012 he was named a Knight of the Profession for his achievements in improving abdominal surgery, achievements and innovations in cancer surgery, liver, pancreas, and kidney transplants, and many years of dedicated work.
2007 the President of Lithuania awarded him the Order of the Officers Cross “For Merits to Lithuania”. 2010 to the st. Christopher Statue “For Lives Saved”. K. Strupas is a full member of the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences.
Litigation peripetias
But things fell apart in one day, when in 2018. In February, it was loudly reported that a case of large-scale corruption was being investigated at the Santara clinics; Large bribes to management were suspected of being disguised as support. One of the suspects arrested was their leader K. Strupas at the time.
Sigismund Gedvila / 15min photo / Marija Nedvecka and Kęstutis Strupas
According to the officials, he, possibly through a subordinate, demanded the support of the legal entities of the Santara clinics for the award and execution of at least five public acquisitions in the field of information technology. According to the Prosecutor’s Office and STT, these five purchases were made for more than 2 million. EUR amount.
2019 In May, these suspicions fell apart, but law enforcement officers brought a different charge against K. Strup: for accepting a bribe (possibly 100 euros). Apparently, the bribery was recorded with secret cameras installed by officials in K. Strup’s office. Although both the doctor and the patient denied this fact, on March 12 of this year. The Vilnius City District Court found him guilty of a crime. K. Strupas was assigned 5,000. EUR, for the patient – 4.5 thousand. a fine of EUR.
The court relied on two doctor-patient meetings recorded on cameras during the verdict, during which the patient was seen to be putting something in that pocket. In one case he saw an envelope, in another case a green piece of paper. Although it was difficult to see the paper well in the video, it was assumed that it was a banknote, although the patient testified in court that it was her health information in one case and the address of her cafeteria in another. The reason for giving a bribe is for K. Strupas to perform the operation on a woman.
However, the Vilnius Regional Court annulled this last decision, holding that the judgment could not be based on presumptions, in other words, not all green books could be considered a ticket. There is also no evidence that K. Strupas performed this operation. So the second suspicion of the famous doctor also fell apart.
From now on, K. Strupas can breathe easily again: nothing is suspected. But what does a person have to go through when an accusation instantly destroys a reputation that has been earned over many years?
– How do you feel, both emotionally and physically, when the two-and-a-half-year process is over?
– I feel very physically. In fact, I felt good all that time. I feel even better morally, especially since I knew from the beginning that there was nothing to be accused of.
Clearly, there were some reflections. My father has said that when they took people out in the postwar years, they sat on the train and thought, “Why, what for?” It took them between 40 and 50 years to discover what happened then and which of their neighbors spoke to them. It’s not a post-war year though, so I hope it turns out who needed all this acting sooner.
The beginning of the comedy was weird, I didn’t expect it to happen to me, but then I looked at it all from an investigator’s perspective.
– Do you have the versions yourself?
– Everyone talks about it, it’s not my version. However, I think it would be fair for the same services, who started everything so loud and loud, to announce who needed it.
– When the process started, did you think you would be justified or in the mood for everything?
– From the first minute, both me and my family and friends knew that I could not do it. In the end, I came to a leadership position not to do something bad, but to do good things that were good enough for me.
I knew then that this process would end one day. It’s a shame that so much time has passed, in fact, as experienced people predicted, before the elections.
– How do you evaluate now, from the current point of view, the whole process?
– I try not to get caught up in the past, I just want to look forward. Clearly, having known this entire law enforcement mechanism, I have had an interesting experience. However, there are two types of people. Some live by memory; they experience painful events in life as tragedy. Others live according to the mind: they watch events like comedy.
I rank second. The beginning of the comedy was strange, I didn’t expect it to happen to me, but then I looked at everything from an investigator’s perspective. It was my first contact in life with legal procedures, but I never doubted or doubted myself. Therefore, I look to the future in a positive light. I just wish the truth would prevail anyway and that the acting directors were also appreciated and appointed.
– If you were offered to re-run the hospital now, would you be willing to accept after the whole process?
– I mean a little different. Looking to the future, I don’t just think about myself. I would very much like that similar scenarios that have become a tradition under the current coalition do not happen to anyone else. Let’s remember how many similar situations there were in which, without knowing why you were in the spotlight, everything quietly collapses.
You, as a suspect, cannot speak during the legal process and everyone else can comment whatever they want.
Not everyone wants or dares to tell you what happened. You, as a suspect, cannot speak during the legal process, as this is an explained order, and everyone else can comment whatever they want.
I am not afraid of my experiences, I need to have different experiences, both glorifying and different. Therefore, I would very much like people to think about what they are gathering to gain power. And I would like to wish the elected government to avoid these mistakes, or parades. First of all, this is wrong, and secondly, these processes should be more transparent: the beginning is very pompous, and when the result is clear, everyone forgets what happened.
And in terms of responsibilities, I am the head of the Abdominal Surgery Center, as before I became CEO. During all that time, I did not lose my knowledge or my skills; As the process unfolded, he was doing the job he did best. And I’ll be happy to keep working on it.
– How do you see the turn of the court when you were accused of bribery without confirming previous accusations in a corruption case?
– The first suspicion they presented to me was abuse of power. Not a word of corruption was spoken, although I was identified with a very large-scale corruption case that ended very quietly last year, although, I repeat, it would be sound to start out loud and finish and apologize. That would be a new practice.
And the bribery allegations came to light two weeks after the “silent” end of the first pre-trial investigation in 2019. In May. I want to emphasize that I did not consult or operate on patients. And, as the lawyers say, both charges had to be made at the same time. Raising another suspicion after a year and a half raises even more “why” questions.
– The notion that doctors take bribes is still prevalent in society. How is it really?
– Times change very fast. In the environment in which I work, this tradition ends in extinction. Early in my doctor’s career, those episodes happened.
– How do you rate the Lithuanian health system in general?
– There are different models in the world. But we all know that there is public and private medicine. In private medicine you pay, in public medicine everything has to be free. Can both systems be compatible?
I have worked in Germany where both systems have been combined. Public medicine is free there, but if a particular patient wants to be treated by a particular doctor, a contract is signed with the hospital and the patient pays for the service. Part of this money goes to the hospital and part to the desired doctor. This system still exists in Germany and can be applied in other countries.
– You mentioned that your circle of acquaintances has not diminished during this process. Nobody really turned around? Did you get any replies from the patient?
– There were few anecdotal situations in which a person comes to the office, looks around, looks at the ceiling, the lamps and asks: “Can’t nobody hear us here?” We laugh at both and so on.
And the circle of people you know hasn’t really diminished. People who have known me for a long time don’t understand why I should suddenly change when I turn 60. None of the labels were attached to the circle of people close to me.
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