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Tragedy of great proportions, on Saturday night, in the Intensive Care Unit of the Hospital Comarcal de Piatra Neamț. Ten patients with COVID, in very serious condition, intubated, died in a devastating fire, which reminds us of two other shocking cases: the Giulești Maternity fire, in August 2010, and that of the Colectiv club, in 2015, when more died of 60 young people.
Piatra Neamț’s doctor on duty simply caught fire to save the sick. Now he needs help himself after suffering severe burns. During the night, he was flown to the Capital to be transferred to Belgium, to a hospital that is ready to receive him. He has burns on 40 percent of his body surface, but especially on his upper extremities, the injuries are severe.
The patients he managed to save were transferred to Iasi last night.
A crisis cell was formed in Bucharest and a criminal investigation was opened in Piatra Neamț and investigations are underway to establish exactly what caused this new tragedy that mourns Romania.
Patients without possibility of rescue
Saturday, 7 pm A call to 112 announces a fire in the Piatra Neamț Regional Hospital, in the Intensive Care Unit.
The fire in the Intensive Care Unit, located on the second floor of the hospital, broke out somewhere after 6:30 p.m. Intubated and in serious condition, the patients had no chance to escape the path of the flames. Eight of them died there and another two died while being transferred to the hospital’s emergency department.
Firefighters arrive. The flames reached the top floor
Firefighters arrived quickly within five minutes of the call. Access was hampered by cars parked in alleys. They acted both from inside and outside, with the help of an escalator. They came in with special equipment. At the beginning 5 special vehicles arrived and when the fire was extinguished, which lasted 20 minutes, there were already 35 means of intervention in the place.
“Colleagues found a fire in a living room that manifested itself with an open flame and a large amount of smoke,” said ISU spokesman Neamț.
There was a lot of black smoke and witnesses say that the flames came from the window to the upper floor.
Medical personnel, first rescuers
The ward was one of two intensive care units, where 16 patients were hospitalized. All intubated and all with the same diagnosis: COVID-19. The first to intervene to save them were medical personnel.
The anesthetist on call and some nurses did everything they could to save their patients. They tried to take them in their arms, because they couldn’t move. However, the plastic coveralls of the medical staff just melted away.
“First we try to save the patients, but we must also understand the particularities of these patients, many of them intubated, in the ATI section, all COVID-positive,” said Lucian Micu, manager of the Piatra Neamț County Hospital.
Eight of these patients died in the flames. Two others died a few dozen minutes later in the Emergency Department.
Mayor: A “Collective!”
“I went up in a moment to see the effect, what happened there, to understand how serious the situation is. Sad, a landscape … a COLLECTIVE, I have no other words, a tragedy, I even saw a man who recognized her mother also came after the fire, ”the mayor of the municipality, Andrei Carabelea, told Digi24.
Desperate to save his patients, the doctor on duty suffered burns to 40% of his body. Another doctor and two nurses had first and second degree burns.
The Minister of Health, Nelu Tătaru, arrived urgently, on Saturday night, at Piatra Neamț.
“A tragic event, here in Piatra Neamt, fire in the ATI department, 10 deaths among patients, a doctor with 40% burns, three other people in the medical apparatus with burns of grade 1 and 2, but in a limited area , which does not require hospitalization ”, announced the minister the first data of the tragedy.
Serious fire safety deficiencies in the hospital
According to the National Authority for Health Quality Management, Piatra Neamț’s health unit was not even accredited.
“The bad thing is that the hospital has not entered the current accreditation cycle, it is targeted only for next year for accreditation, but since the last accreditation, we have quickly reviewed some results and exactly in the area where the institution should to guarantee the safety of staff and patients in a fire prevention plan and their evacuation, has four non-compliance indicators, respectively, they were not responsible for fire prevention nominated for each section, they were not responsible for the intervention in case of fire, They did not have a training program, in the last evaluation, so it was, unfortunately. In the ATI section you have electricity and an oxygen source, and oxygen in contact with any source of flame or grease explodes “, said Marius Filip, director in Digi24 by ANMCS.
What about the survivors
The six patients who survived the hell of ATI were transferred to Modular Hospital in Lețcani, Iași County. To take care of them, 4 trucks with medical personnel went to Piatra Neamț on Saturday night.
“Two multiple victims, two from intensive care and we have another prepared from the Military Hospital, which will be available. Obviously, the staff, who are mobilized from home, that we are organizing now, and the doctors of the plastic surgery and ATI specialties that will be organized here, in Iași, waiting for the patients ”, said Diana Cimpoeșu, coordinator of Iași UPU- SMURD.
The doctor on duty injured in the Iași fire was airlifted to Bucharest last night for a first evaluation. Later he was transferred to Belgium.
Editor: Luana Pavaluca
