Five years after the fire at Giulesti maternity in Bucharest which claimed the lives of six newborns and which injured other five, Bucharest Court of Appeal brought in a final verdict for the moral authors of the tragedy. Nurse Florentina Cirstea, who should watch the babies, will serve a jail sentence of two years and two months, while the former hospital’s manager got away with a suspended sentence of six months.
The head of the neonatology ward, doctor Adrian Ioan Toma, was acquitted for actionable negligence. The electrician of the hospital, Gigel Oprea got a suspended sentence of one year.
The nurse, the former manager and the electrician are also compelled to jointly pay with the maternity, Health ministry and Bucharest general mayor compensations of 4,231,500 euro.
The court determined that Astra insurance company would pay no more than EUR 10,000 for the nurse and no more EUR 500,000 for the maternity.
A fire burst in the intensive care unit for newborns of Giulesti maternity on the evening of August 16, 2010.
Three babies died in the fire, while other three died later on, due to the complications. Two pairs of tweens- two boys and a boy and a girl and another girl – were injured but eventually the doctors from Grigore Alexandrescu hospital saved them.
The investigators decided that the nurse responsible for the ICU had left the ward to ask a colleague some napkins to go to the toilet, but she left the newborns non-attended for too much time.
The trial began in January 2011.