“It is with great sadness that we inform you that our Mirza Čengić has left us, a great friend, comrade, brother and former employee of Gastro pub “Vučko” who left a great mark on our team, as well as on local and foreign guests with his recognizable smile, no matter what mood he was in, and we believe that he will be remembered that way by all those who knew him, and he will forever have his place in our paradise and facilities. He loves you, Paradise from Vučko!”
It is as if this post on the Facebook page of Gastro pub Vučko from Sarajevo tells everything about Mirza, who died after, as it turns out, a tragic set of circumstances, he was dismissed from the Institute for Emergency Medicine in Zadar.
Mirza Čengić, a 35-year-old citizen of Bosnia and Herzegovina, like many of his compatriots, came to the Zadar area with a belly for bread and worked in a restaurant in Ražanac. He was just as popular there as he was in Sarajevo.
It was on April 17 that he complained to colleagues at work about tingling in his arm and left side of his body. To rule out the worst, his colleagues transported him to Zadar, so that he could be examined at the Emergency Department. Fate wanted the navigation to take them to the neighboring building, to the Department of Emergency Medicine of the Zadar County, instead of to the unified Emergency Hospital Reception.
Similar pun, but different buildings maybe 50 meters apart and different medical teams. Although the Department of Emergency Medicine of the Zadar Parish in the Polyclinic building could have simply instructed him to report to the Emergency Hospital in the building of the Zadar General Hospital, which is intended for life-threatening patients and emergency situations, and has clearly established protocols for such situations, he was received and examined at the Department of Emergency Medicine.
The young doctor measured his blood pressure, asked him about additional complaints and assessed that he was not vitally endangered, and that he did not require urgent hospital care. He was discharged with a diagnosis of high blood pressure and advice to see a doctor in Ražanac on Monday if the condition does not improve after the weekend.
It would turn out to be a fatal decision, as Mirza would die just twenty minutes after the examination. With the obtained medical diagnosis, Mirza and friends will head back to Ražanac by car. And then the drama begins.
After a few minutes of driving, he complained to his friends that he needed water. They stopped at the Tri Bartola gas station and bought him a bottle of water and continued on their way.
Halfway to Ražanac, he started vomiting. When we looked at him, his eyes were already twisted and his face started to turn blue, and his mouth was completely blue, said his friend Rizvo.
They stopped the car and began to resuscitate him and called an ambulance, which arrived quickly. Unfortunately, it was too late, Mirza died after an hour of resuscitation.
His friends who took him to the examination, two from Sarajevo and one from Slavonia, immediately thought of a medical error.
He complained of tingling in his hand and tingling in his mouth. And he was kind of red in the face. The examination lasted some ten to 15 minutes. No longer. I think they just measured his blood pressure and released him immediately and told him to report to the local clinic in Ražanac on Monday,” his friend Emir Rizvo told dnevnik.hr.
His best friend claims that the obvious symptoms were not taken seriously at the Department of Emergency Medicine, as evidenced by the discharge letter in which he denies any complaints and that he has high blood pressure, after which he was sent home, without additional tests and suspicions of an acute heart attack.
Could Mirza’s life have been saved within the so-called the “golden hour”, the period in which the patient has the possibility of surviving an upcoming heart attack? This is the critical time in which the patient can be saved, and if this period passes, the heart muscle begins to die after being deprived of its blood supply and the affected parts of the heart will suffer permanent damage if there is no reaction. So, the sooner doctors normalize the blood flow, the less damage to the heart will be.
The Acting Director of the Institute for Emergency Medicine of Zadar County, Mladen Oluić, immediately upon learning of this case, initiated an internal professional supervision over the actions of the employees of the Institute for Emergency Medicine of Zadar County.
– Considering that the supervision procedure is ongoing, we are not able to provide detailed information about the circumstances of the event or any preliminary findings at this time. At the end of the monitoring, the public will be informed in a timely manner about all relevant facts. It is in the institute’s interest to completely and objectively determine all the circumstances of this event and act in accordance with valid medical standards and regulations, he said.
This will not console the family and friends of Mirza, who they said goodbye to forever on Thursday at 2.30 pm at the cemetery in Sarajevo. His colleagues and friends from Ražanac also traveled to the last farewell.
The competent ministry, as well as the Croatian Medical Chamber, became involved in the case. Everyone expects relevant information and conclusions from the inspection as soon as possible, which for now – there are none.
What happened, could a young life have been saved, why wasn’t he sent to the Unified Emergency Department for examination, what could have been done, but wasn’t, was the opportunity to react within the “golden hour” missed?
There are many questions and few answers. What is unfortunately certain is that a young and good soul left this world looking for help.
Which he did not get.
