MOSCOW, July 24 (RIA Novosti) – Doctors at a Moldovan children’s hospital have for years been using household drills and pliers to perform surgery because the hospital director will not allocate funds for new equipment, according to local media reports and a video that have sent shockwaves across the impoverished ex-Soviet nation.
In a video obtained and posted online by Moldova’s Panorama daily newspaper earlier this week, three masked surgeons and a nurse wield what looks like a household drill to bore a hole in the sedated patient’s elbow. They also use what appears to be a pair of pliers to hold extracted tissue and remove the drill from the hole, according to the video. There was no way of verifying the video's authenticity.
The daily said it obtained the video from staff at the Ignatenco children’s hospital in the Moldovan capital of Chisinau who were disgruntled at the hospital’s director for not allocating funds to buy new equipment.
Nicolae Curca, the surgeon who performed the operation, was quoted by Panorama as saying Tuesday that “household tools have only one drawback – they are difficult to sterilize.”
Curca said that his colleagues also use hammers and chisels to cut bones, the BBC reported Tuesday.
Europe’s poorest nation, Moldova has witnessed a deterioration of the population’s health status in all indicators since it gained independence in 1991, while the use of obsolete equipment limits the quality of healthcare services, according to the World Health Organization.
The video and reports have provoked outrage in Moldova. Prime Minister Iurie Leanca has called for an inspection of the hospital, its inventory and medical staff, Panorama said Tuesday.
Moldova’s Health Minister was quoted by Panorama as having told a TV channel that medical equipment is used for operations at the hospital, and that the clinic has three new medical drills.
“The electric drill shown in the video is something else. Such tools are not listed in the clinic’s inventory, but they can be used,” Andrei Usatii was quoted by Panorama as saying Monday. The surgeon used the drill “at his own risk and he will be held responsible for that.”
