Episode 20 – The Transfer to Vienna, a “Passport” to a New Life

About the first hours of hospitalization I remember very little. After I was taken over by the ambulance, I was sedated and had repeated states of fainting. On the morning of the following day I was awakened by the medical staff in the intensive care ward of the Cluj Emergency Clinical Hospital. At the medical round, the doctor who operated on my cervical spine that night told me that my life was no longer in danger, but that I would need a rigorous recovery program. That is when I understood that my spinal cord had been affected. The news fell like a thunderbolt, and from that moment I understood that my life was going to change radically.

So that you understand the situation better, here is what a specialized study says: “Cervical spine traumas are events with devastating potential on patients… … There is, surely, no more dramatic injury than tetraplegia through cervical trauma”.1) Following the attempted murder I remained completely paralyzed from the neck down, being classified in DEGREE I (ONE) OF SEVERE DISABILITY – WITH ASSISTANT (doc.1).

When the Surgery Succeeds, They Kill You with the Hospital

The first days after admission I was breathing very heavily. Besides the spinal injury, I also had the ribs on the left side fractured and atelectasis of the left lung (deflated lung), as a result of the car wheel being driven over me. I was periodically transferred to the surgery section for the cleaning and restoration of the lung. After a few days my medical situation began to worsen suddenly because of the intra-hospital (nosocomial) infections, “acquired” in the Cluj Clinical Hospital. At that time, neither I nor my family knew what the cause of the harm was, because in Romania this problem was hidden “under the rug.” Everything was happening five months before the Colectiv event, the case that put on the public agenda the terrible scourge of intra-hospital infections.

I was feverish, I had developed septicemia, and one of the doctors told my wife, quite brutally: “give up on him”. The surgery had succeeded, but the patient… Ana Bocea: “That is when I realized the seriousness of the situation and got in touch with Mr. Ionce for a possible transfer (to Vienna). At that moment I did not know about the intra-hospital infections, since this problem was not talked about. He told me that transport by ambulance is excluded and that transport by a special intensive-care airplane is necessary. Subsequently I was in audience with the section chief of the Cluj Clinical Hospital. He told me that they are trying to change the medication but the fever does not drop. I was not told at that moment that my husband was in a state of septicemia. I remember that besides the intubation tube, pus was coming out, and my husband had on his right leg a bedsore of 6-7 cm, since he had not been turned” (Ana Bocea tribunal statement).Only after my admission to the Meidling trauma center in Vienna did I find out how serious the septicemia provoked by the pathogenic germs caught in the Cluj hospital was.
In the medical documents the presence of 10 (ten) intra-hospital infections is signaled. At least two of these could lead to death. The laboratory analyses made in Vienna indicated, in the antibiogram, that the infection cannot be treated with the usual antibiotics. The ones in Austria were forced to order an antibiotic from Germany. The Viennese doctors found that the surgery had been very well performed in Romania, which is why I am grateful to Mr. Dr. Attila Kiss, a true professional whom I thank also by this means. Unfortunately, the post-traumatic evolution was complicated because of the hospitalization conditions. Shortly after the surgery, I developed an extremely severe septicemia and had recurrent respiratory failures, provoked by intra-hospital infections with multiresistant germs. I was administered treatment “by ear,” without an antibiogram, for a reason that has no connection with medicine: if the nosocomial ones appear on a test bulletin, they must be declared, and their declaration produces disturbance in the health system. It is very clear to me that I would have had no chance with the “change of medication” experimented in the Cluj Emergency Clinical Hospital. The transfer to Vienna was my “passport” to a new life, and I obtained it more hardly than it seems at first glance…

“Angels Are Among Us”

For the transfer to Vienna, the family turned to Liviu Ionce, a Romanian settled in Austria, who, for over 15 years, has been dealing with the transport of patients from Romania to high-performance hospitals in the West. In my case, Liviu Ionce did much more: he deposited 40,000 euros of his savings in the accounts of the clinic in Vienna, a guarantee for me to be accepted as a patient. He had never seen me, he knew nothing about us apart from the fact that we were in desperate need of help.

“Immediately after the accident, Mrs. Bocea asked me to look for a recovery center for her husband. I told her that first the critical situation the patient was in had to be resolved, and only afterward should steps be taken to find a recovery center. After a few days, I was informed by telephone that the patient’s medical condition had worsened, he entering into sepsis. I was asked to organize a transport of the patient to a clinic in Vienna. I personally took care of the transport and admission of the civil party. Likewise, at the clinic’s request and because the family did not have on that day the financial resources, I made a bank transfer of approximately 40,000 euros to guarantee the coverage of the costs of the medical treatment. At the same time I fulfilled the function of translator, being a mediator between the doctor and the relatives. (…) Question from the civil party’s lawyer: How was the transport from Cluj to Vienna carried out? Answer – The patient was transported by a medical airplane. Question from the civil party’s lawyer. – What does this airplane require? Answer – A pilot, a copilot, a doctor specialized in intensive care, and two paramedics were needed, since the patient was intubated and his monitoring had to be ensured. In Vienna he was taken over by an ambulance and transported to the clinic. The medical staff accompanied him to the clinic. Question from the civil party’s lawyer: – In his opinion, could a different kind of transport from Cluj to Vienna have been carried out? Answer – Given that for over 15 years I have been dealing with the transport of patients abroad, I appreciate that, given the condition of the civil party, namely the fact that he was in septicemia, no specialist doctor would have given his consent for his transport by land.
Question from the civil party’s lawyer – What were the first findings of the patient’s condition when he was brought from Cluj? Answer – The patient’s condition was critical, an aspect that also results from the medical documents. He had several intra-hospital infections. The first two weeks were very critical, the doctors not knowing whether he would recover and whether he would be able to breathe without being mechanically supported. The family talked daily with the medical staff, and only after two weeks were they told that there are chances of improvement” (Doc Ionce tribunal statement). The day after the admission in Vienna, my family returned the guarantee paid by Liviu Ionce, but his gesture was and will remain priceless.

And Yet, I Am a Lucky Man…

Sometimes, your hardest battles are fought for you by others. If you are lucky. In the weeks that followed the criminal attack at Râul Alb, the burden fell on Ana Bocea – my wife, who had to face the DNA assault, the media lynching, and to oppose the so-called “friends” who sought to take over our businesses. In addition, she had to be permanently next to me. “Approximately 5 days after we arrived in Austria, we were told that the patient presents multiple problems and that he presents several infections at the level of the neck and forehead. He was intubated. At the first discussion with the neurologist it was explained to me that my husband will be able to breathe only with mechanical help and that he will be dependent on an electrically operated chair. From that moment I began to search the internet for various recovery programs for his state of health. Initially I was informed that a tracheostomy is needed. After the intubation procedure, I explained to my husband that approximately 7 years of recovery would follow. He was outraged at such news. I was allowed at that clinic to stay daily with my husband in the interval 7-22, to participate in the morning hygiene, in the maintenance of the tubes, of the catheters. I cared for him together with a nurse. One morning, after approximately three weeks of intubation, he began to cough and we got worried. The medical staff told us that it is good news, this meaning that he can be extubated. He was kept, however, in a plastic balloon, an environment in which a high level of oxygen was ensured for him” (Ana Bocea).

For 45 days in intensive care I was fed and breathed with the help of machines. I was forced to stay in bed, almost permanently lying on my back. Through the window of the ward I could see only a patch of Viennese sky, periodically torn by airplanes in flight. I heard the bustle of the street and tried to imagine the lives of those passing under the window of my ward. I was weak and fainted very often because of the low blood pressure. Almost every attempt to raise myself into a sitting position ended with loss of consciousness. A few days before leaving the center I was placed for the first time in a wheelchair and asked to be taken to the window. At last I could look at the life outside. Across from the hospital was the CEMETERY. My eyes filled with tears, but at the same time I rejoiced that I am still on the “living” side of the road…

A New Life

From intensive care I was transferred for three months to the Weisser Huf recovery center, where I learned to adapt to my new life. My body was completely inert from the neck down. I could move my arms very little from the shoulders, but they were 70% paralyzed and I could not hold anything in my hands. The clinic is specialized in neuro-motor disorders and almost all the patients here spend their days in a wheelchair. Despite the medical problems, they were cheerful and focused on the recovery program. Most of them were not at their first admission, they knew one another and formed a true community. At Weisser Huf the instructors are friendly, but very rigorous during the individual and collective training sessions. They showed me the exercises that I could do alone or with the help of a physiotherapist, as well as which medical apparatus were of use to me for the passive movements. I learned several tricks for moving and overcoming obstacles with the wheelchair. For me it was a new world, which from the beginning made me understand that I must adapt quickly to the new situation, if I want to survive.

Little by little, over the course of those months, with my entire body paralyzed, I managed to relearn a few small skills. In my arms I had no strength, but in time I was able to lean on them, just enough to be able to transfer myself into the chair. I began to grasp the spoon with my right hand in order to feed myself and to type on the keyboard with one finger. My left palm I could no longer use for anything. In those moments the support of the family mattered most to me. There were moments when I needed help to remove an annoying fly. All the banal gestures that make up life – and there are thousands every day! – had to be rethought with the involvement of those around me. During the recovery, my wife was admitted alongside me. Together we took it from zero, “from the spoon and fork” as in our youth, but in conditions infinitely more painful for us. The first outing with the family into the city was a celebration. We had won the battle for life, even if…

Nothing was as before anymore. I had begun a new life, but, at that time, I did not even suspect what I was going to discover on returning to the country.

Notes:

1)“Cervical spine traumas are events with devastating potential on patients. In a general framework of increasing frequency of traumas, vertebro-medullary traumas represent a distinct category, being, if not the most serious, among the most serious of the entire traumatic pathology. There is, surely, no more dramatic injury than tetraplegia through cervical trauma”