Confession of a miner's mother: At KCUS they corrected the address, but couldn't diagnose a hip fracture

Written by: A. Čorbo-Zećo

---

In the cold hallway of the Orthopedics department of the Clinical Center of the University of Sarajevo (KCUS), around midnight on Monday, September 23, a half-naked, black-faced, injured, bruised, but happy 24-year-old miner from Breza, who had not left his life in the belly of the earth, waited for the mercy of doctors.

This is not a movie script; this is Bosnian reality. Namely, in the mining accident that occurred on Monday at the Breza Brown Coal Mine, three miners were injured. Among them is the 24-year-old young man from the beginning of the story. 

The diagnosis for the injured miner was waited for a full four days, and finally in Zenica, a fracture of the right hip was established!

This harrowing story was told to the Patria News Agency by the mother of the injured young man. 

"I received information that my son was injured in a mining accident in Breza. I don't even know how I started heading towards KCUS; they headed towards Sarajevo by ambulance.

They somehow pulled them out, but later I experienced another shock, this time at the Orthopedics Clinic. At KUM, in a state of shock, a doctor kindly instructed me and told me what to do if he felt sleepy, that I had to wake him up, etc. But they told us we had to go to Orthopedics because they suspected a fracture of the left lower leg.

At Orthopedics, the lights were off. My son, just in his underwear on a stretcher, terrified. Pulled out from the belly of the earth, we waited in the hallway. A doctor walked past us without even looking at us. They went into the office and looked at the images from KUM. They called me in, and the doctor complained that something was not right and that the addresses we provided did not match! Then I also asked the doctor, who did not even introduce himself, whether I should have brought a referral. He kicked me out and later sent a technician to me who told me there was no fracture and that we should go home," recounts the shaken mother of the injured miner.

Wondering what kind of treatment this is for an emergency case and a miner who only by sheer luck survived the ground subsidence due to air release in the pit, this mother (identity known to the Patria editorial board) wanted to share her disappointment with the public.

"My son's leg continued to hurt; he walks like a penguin. At KCUS, they gave us a paper without a doctor's signature. We immediately went to the Breza Health Center the next day, where we took new images. After two days in Zenica, they told us that the finding from KCUS was not even valid. An X-ray was repeated, and a fracture of the right hip was established," emphasizes this woman.

Aware that he remained alive only by sheer luck, the mother of the injured miner now wonders how it is possible that they were not even offered psychological help.

"Well, is it possible that it takes four days to diagnose a fracture? What I experienced at Orthopedics is a picture of the attitude towards all of us. If they treat miners injured in the depths of the earth like that, how will they treat others tomorrow?" she wonders.