Seventeen days of waiting for childbirth, complications, falsified reports and disinterested doctors waiting for bribes... The confessions of mothers from Serbia, whose children will bear the consequences for life, contain serious accusations. Three mothers speak for "Vreme"
"The doctor forcibly punctures the water, the umbilical cord falls out. Delayed caesarean section, resuscitation..."
Nataša Vavra from Novi Sad, Jelena Grubanov from Bačka Palanka and Dragana Mišić from Belgrade, together with thirteen other mothers, published a video on Instagram in which they call for caution during childbirth due to possible complications and doctor's mistakes that can leave lifelong consequences for newborns.
As they point out, their goal is not to accuse, but to send a message to the authorities to take the situation seriously, and that everyone in their domain should do everything, so that the things that happened to them - would not happen again to any expectant mother in Serbia.
And the consequences for their children are terrible. The children have been diagnosed with cerebral palsy and they all accuse the doctors and medical staff of being the main culprits for such a condition.
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"They kept me for 17 days with a lack of amniotic fluid"
Vavra says that the idea to shoot this video came about after the agreement of mothers in the group "Our wonderful special children" on Instagram and Facebook.
He explains that, as time passes, they receive more and more information that due to medical errors, many children are left with consequences that will follow them for the rest of their lives.
"Since we live their medical mistakes every day, we asked ourselves how long this will continue to happen and when will someone be held accountable for the mistakes?" We asked ourselves how long the situation will last for people to cross themselves and enter the maternity ward? It is high time to point out the medical errors and for the institutions to start doing their job," explains Nataša Vavra in an interview with "Vreme".
According to her, her case is not an isolated one, and the consequences for the child are very serious.
"I had a completely normal pregnancy until the 32nd week. There was a lack of amniotic fluid. The doctor, who is a professor at the university, who has a reputation, managed my pregnancy privately. I had great confidence in him," she says.
"When the lack of amniotic fluid was noticed, he was on vacation. I was admitted to the hospital and the doctor who admitted me told me that she would give birth to me in two to three days," says Natasha.
She was supposed to receive an injection for the baby's lungs, followed by a caesarean section.
"I have a large dioptre, so I wouldn't be allowed to have a natural birth anyway." The doctor who managed my pregnancy was contacted, and he said to wait for him to come. I accepted it all calmly, I'm not a panicky person by nature and I was convinced that they knew what they were doing."
"The ultrasound showed that the baby is not suffering and that everything is more or less fine." And so they kept me with a lack of amniotic fluid for 17 days. And that's how Sergej was born blue-eyed, even though he got a grade of eight," recalls Natasha.
She is convinced that the discharge list is fake.
"I was under total anesthesia and I did not see how he was born, but my husband, who was in front, did. When I woke up, I immediately saw that something was wrong. I was as if someone had hit me with an ax, with a huge wound and large hematomas. Next to me there were also mothers who were delivered by caesarean section, and they were not even close to the injuries I had," says Nataša Vavra.
She is convinced that something went wrong during the birth, despite the claims of the medical staff that it was all normal.
"I was lying with three other moms, and they all had wounds, but no bruises." And I am convinced that what happened was covered up. "After that, we waited six days for a free incubator at the Children's Hospital in Novi Sad," says Vavra.
"Sergey was born six weeks before the due date, he had a small weight and was waiting for a place, that is, an incubator, to become available. He was receiving some kind of antibiotic, but they didn't tell me why. And when you ask, you don't get complete information. We spent 33 days in the Children's Hospital, and all possible complications started. "They suspected that it was the intestines, then meningitis, and finally it was sepsis," says Vavra.
He says that for six days the doctors did not know what it was about, and that the baby turned gray-green during that time, and that he was on the "edge".
"Dr. Gordana Velisavljev came to my night shift and told me that she thinks he is not receiving the right therapy and that she is in favor of changing the therapy." She played the most important role. Sergej's condition improved in a few days and he was able to drink a bottle. "After 15 days, he came out of the incubator, and after a few days I was able to take him home," she says.
After all, Sergey was diagnosed with cerebral palsy. The diagnosis was received after three years and four months.
Now Sergej is going to Poland for rehabilitation, and his parents are trying to make him able to walk independently. They are firmly convinced that they will succeed.
"Lenka stopped breathing at one point"
Jelena Grubanov says in an interview for "Vreme" that her daughter Lenka was a completely healthy child for 17 months.
"She got laryngitis when she was 17 months old. That happened in February 2020. The disease was diagnosed by a doctor in Bačka Palanka."
Laryngitis or inflammation of the larynx is a relatively common childhood disease. The most common cause is viruses. The disease causes children to make a hoarse or screeching sound called stridor, which is heard when they inhale. Symptoms often start suddenly in the middle of the night.
"Since I didn't like how she was breathing at all, because the laryngitis had progressed, I took her to the emergency room, where they attacked me with the words: 'Why did you bring the child'? I then asked for directions to Novi Sad to go to the hospital, and we went there. "Lenki's saturation was already low - 86, but the doctors were of the opinion that it was just laryngitis and nothing more," says Jelena Grubanov.
She adds that her daughter was still kept in the Children's Hospital and placed in a special room due to poor saturation.
"Lenka fought for every breath all night. I called the doctor countless times, who replied that she was a very spoiled child and that she was practically faking suffocation, and she told me directly that she didn't like that I brought her to the hospital. The condition worsened during the night, and in the early morning, six hours ago, she stopped breathing in my arms. Her heart stopped," says Grubanov.
Reanimation followed, which brought Lenka back to life.
"After resuscitation, they practically throw me out." That's when I noticed that they took the paper from the reception, on which it was written what was done, from the room where we were. On that replaced paper, they wrote that she received therapy, which was a lie, because she did not receive anything. And when I took all the documentation, I saw clearly that everything had been changed. Among other things, it was written that she received an injection against suffocation, but she did not receive anything," claims the "Vremena" interlocutor.
Lenka remained in intensive care, and the protocol contains a specification that Jelena could not be with her daughter.
"I wasn't with her and I don't know what happened for eight days." As a result, she got huge pressure sores," says Grubanov.
Decubitus is an open wound on the skin that occurs as a result of the body staying in one position for too long, most often when lying down. Bedsores are characteristic of patients who lie down a lot or are immobile.
"How serious the condition was is shown by the fact that she got pressure sores in February, and the scabs fell off only in July." Lenka lost all functions. She had a strong spasm, the child lost his sight, the ability to walk and speak. "She turned from a healthy child into a child who has lost all functions," points out Jelena Grubanov.
After eight days, the doctors told her that due to her serious damage, she could only be placed in one of the institutions, and that she would remain a plant forever.
"Doctors had no explanation for what happened." They were all silent," she underlines. He adds that he does not want to name anyone and put him in an unpleasant situation.
She filed complaints and wrote to her superiors. However, she did not achieve anything.
She also wrote to the doctors and asked if they could sleep peacefully after everything that happened. She didn't get an answer.
"The fight against institutions here is a fight with windmills," she says.
"It was as if he had been hit in the head with a bat"
Dragana Mišić from Belgrade has a 13-year-old son Mateja. He was a perfectly healthy baby.
"He was healthy for nine months. I went to Narodni Front to give birth in 2011, my water broke, everything was 'normal'. Upon arrival, the problems begin. They didn't give birth to me, but put me in a room, and gave birth only the next day," she tells "Vreme".
"My amniotic fluid was leaking, the baby was suffocating inside, but I was the first child, and I didn't know anything. Now I have four children, I gave birth at Zvezdara afterwards, and everything was fine. And then - it wasn't," notes Mišić.
She "conducted a private pregnancy" and wanted to give birth in the "Dragiša Mišović" hospital.
"I interpret that my relationship was weak and there was no place for me, so I had to join the 'People's Front'." They received me at three in the morning, and only the next day at six in the morning they took me to give birth, and I gave birth at four in the afternoon. Probably all the amniotic fluid was gone, I don't know, but the consequences were catastrophic."
"What struck me the most was that when the problems started - no one was allowed to come forward and take responsibility." "I didn't open myself, but I obviously didn't know that I was crying so that I would be delivered by caesarean section," says Dragana.
She says that, the entire time she was waiting, none of the medical staff made rounds, and nothing happened.
"I didn't dilate, and I didn't have contractions." She had the same births after that, but everything was different. The doctors in 'Zvezdara' acted differently and the births went normally. I was given both medicine and oxygen, and everything went well. And that's the point. Obviously, I didn't have a thick relationship and I didn't pay in advance. "I didn't prepare well the first time," points out Dragana Mišić.
The interlocutor of "Vremen" recalls that 36 hours passed from the moment the water broke to the moment of delivery, and that was after her initiative. Next to her was a pregnant woman who had an affair. Her doctor visited her for 15 minutes to half an hour, nobody visited Dragana.
When the labor started, the baby got "stuck", and the complications started. The baby was suffocating, and after delivery, she was immediately resuscitated.
"The resuscitation table was there, in front of me." I have seen and heard everything. I asked to see him, but they wouldn't let me. They put a diaper over him. He had hematomas on his head, and they took him to the first or second floor for neonatology. The doctor upstairs was great and just told me that the child needs further treatment. "The child suffered terribly," she said.
Matej's son was diagnosed with cerebral palsy, epilepsy, and osteoporosis, and the equivalent of what happened to him, Dragana claims, would be if he was hit in the head with a baseball bat. He is disabled for life and needs round-the-clock care.
If there is anything good in this story, according to his mother, it is that Mateja understands everything, has a big family that adores him and is involved in all aspects of the family's life.
"We are full of energy and life, and we are doing our best, but I don't know how long it will last," concludes Dragana Mišić.
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