Sibiu: Investigation in ICU ward after former employee claims he killed COVID patients

The management of the Sibiu County Emergency Clinical Hospital (SCJU) announces that it will start an investigation at the ICU ward where there are patients with COVID-19, after a former employee claimed in the local press, under protection of anonymity, that he killed sick people.

"The management of Sibiu SCJU will start an investigation regarding the activity of the ICU-Covid ward, in order to identify and remedy the possible problems. Since the start of the pandemic, 570 patients have been admitted to the ICU-Covid ward, of whom 152 were transferred back to the original ward with a favorable evolution of their health (the ICU does not discharge patients), 397 died and 21 are currently hospitalized. We underscore that very serious patients, who require respiratory support, are transferred the ICU," reads a Sibiu SCJU release.

According to the quoted source, "the procedures and protocols regarding the management of the pandemic are in a continuous dynamic and are permanently adapted to correspond as well as possible to the specifics at one time or another and to ensure the best conditions of hospitalization and treatment for patients. (...) We want the public opinion to know the truth, following the investigation that will be carried out at the level of the hospital and the relevant bodies."

Prosecutors are also investigating whether patients with COVID-19 are killed in the ICU of the County Hospital.

Prosecutors opened a criminal case for homicide on Monday, in the case of the Sibiu Clinical Emergency County Hospital, after an article was published in the local media, in which a source stated, under anonymity protection, that as a former ICU employee, both him and other medical staff would have murdered COVID-19 patients, First Prosecutor with the Sibiu Court Ion Vestemean pointed out for AGERPRES.

"For now, only based on the article we took note ex-officio. A criminal case has been registered and we are going to perform an in rem investigation," Prosecutor Ion Vestemean explained.

Asked whether since the beginning of the pandemic until now there has been a complaint or anonymous letter stating that COVID-19 patients are being killed at ICU in Sibiu County Hospital, prosecutor Ion Vestemean said: "No, we had nothing".

A person who claims that he was an employee of the Sibiu Emergency County Clinical Hospital's ICU, where there are patients with COVID-19, said in an article published on Sunday, in the local press, that "he allegedly killed patients too." According to this disclosure, the patients with COVID-19 brought into this unit would have been sedated from the beginning, given that this is fatal for those with respiratory infections. According to the said source, these patients were actually tied to the bed by hands and feet, face up, when they could no longer breathe and began to shake.