“Weekend Truth”: How did you specialize in disaster medicine?
Dan-Ioan Mănăstireanu: It was a hobby. By profession I am an anesthetist. Then I took my second major in emergency medicine. I grew up in the Military Hospital, but during college I did many shifts in the Emergency Hospital, and the culture of military medicine, emergency medicine, and anesthesia led me to disaster medicine. I understood what it meant to read literature and participate in all kinds of events, like the theaters of operations in Somalia or the earthquake in Turkey in 1999. In the Somalia hospital, I was the chief resuscitation physician, subordinate to the commander.
But when did your first disaster medicine intervention occur? In the earthquake of 1977?
Yes. I was then working in an institution in Drumul Taberei, but I was also on duty in the Bucharest ambulance. I had some experience, three or four years in hairdressing salons, which is very important. I remember that first I went to work, where I saw that there were no problems, then I went to the ambulance and made myself available to the doctors there. I was sent with a crew to Alexandru Sahia. It was my first experience in disaster medicine. I was in the ambulance for three days, on Alexandru Sahia Street, where the apple fell.
Photo: medcenter.ro
The primacy of the victims
Military medicine and disaster medicine seem to be the same. What is the difference?
Yes, in military medicine, the action is also in the genre of disaster medicine, except that there the first victims are the easiest, and in the case of a serious condition one stays and counts, whether one treats them or not. In disaster medicine, however, the first victims are the most serious and you try to save them with the medical resources at hand. If you don’t have a fan, you don’t have someone to bring it to you, you air it with the balloon as much as you can. If we don’t do a massive test, that’s what we’re headed for.
It is very difficult to have the vision that the disaster is on the corner and that it can come at any moment, when you look outside and it is clear. Such thinking is probably also a justification for the fact that, at the moment, Romania has abolished all its reserves for disaster medicine.
An internationally recognized master’s degree, but abolished
At one point, he was pursuing a master’s degree in disaster medicine at Titu Maiorescu University. Why was it abolished?
Yes, I kept it, and right now, my teachers are in leadership positions. In fact, only some of them, that others had already changed because they were people with straight spines and did not worship politics. They said that the intervention plan must be made, even for internal disasters, of which we speak. The master’s degree no longer exists due to internal problems, a lack of funding that did not allow me to invite any professor with me. The then university management did not understand the importance and made it very difficult for me.
It was recognized internationally, right?
Yes, we had some personalities as guests, hospital directors, SAJ (ambulance services without county), just special people. But our internal problems intervened. It is a shame, however, that it is not done. It is very difficult to have the vision that the disaster is on the corner and that it can come at any moment, when you look outside and it is clear. Such thinking is probably also a justification for the fact that, at this time, Romania has abolished all its reserves for disaster medicine.
You mentioned that you still teach. Where do you have courses?
At the Faculty of Geography at the University of Bucharest, if you can believe it. It was not organized by me, but by Professor Armaş Iuliana, an extraordinary woman with a broad vision, who called me to be with her. Organize this master that nobody knew about. It has been working for five years, but it has no resonance, because it has not been publicized, although it is the only one in the country.
The beginnings, with Arafat
You say nobody asked you for advice. But it is necessary to meet various specialists from the ministry, such as Raed Arafat.
They didn’t even ask my opinion (laughter). Yes, I worked with Arafat. The problem is that our views are different. I, under the leadership of Professor Mircea Chiorean from Târgu Mureş, who raised and supported Dr. Arafat, founded the first Romanian Society for Emergency and Disaster Medicine. I dealt with disaster medicine and Raed with emergency medicine. He’s the man in the red plane. It was not a great sympathy, that is the situation.
The authorities were often overwhelmed by the situation during this period, sometimes the feeling is that no specialist seems to be consulted. Why do you think this is happening?
I read Professor Rafila and you should know that he is a man who does not talk about alms. He said at one point that the College of Health Ministry specialists had not been consulted for two months. I don’t know who is at that university, but if Professor Rafila says that, I am terrified. I did not say they come from outside, said Rafila, our representative at WHO. And the problem is that there is no will. What terrifies me is that everyone is talking about money, our impossibility, that we are poor. It’s not about that. The first thing that must exist is the will of our leaders who, unfortunately, have no idea. In reality, they are not prepared in this area.
University professor, former director of Hospital Elías
Photo: z0ltan77.com
Name: Dan-Ioan Mănăstireanu
Date and place of birth: March 30, 1950, Slatina, Olt County
Studies and career:
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She graduated from UMF “Carol Davila” in 1979, became an ATI specialist in 1982 and an emergency medicine specialist in 2002.
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Since 1997 he has been an associate professor and since 2004 a university professor.
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He was director of the Elías Hospital and deputy director of the Central University Hospital for Military Emergencies. Here he installed, in 1999, the Emergency Reception Unit, and in Oradea, the discipline “disaster medicine”.
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He is a member of the National ATI Society and a founding member of the National Society of Loco-Regional Anesthesia and an honorary member of the National Disaster Medical System in the United States.
Lives in: Bucharest
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