KS Prosecutor's Office to Decide Later Whether to Open a Case on Doctor Pašagić's Death

SARAJevo, (Patria) – The KS Prosecutor's Office has not received a report regarding the death of Doctor Šefik Pašagić, confirmed Azra Bavčić, spokesperson for the KS Prosecutor's Office to the media. When asked whether they would act ex officio, Bavčić stated that they would "decide after more facts are known and if there are elements of a criminal offense". 

Doctor Pašagić died on April 5 at the Podhrastovi Clinic of the University Clinical Center Sarajevo after a multi-day desperate struggle to receive medical care, having battled a fever for days. 

His wife, in a confession to the portal Klix, recounted the agony her husband and she went through from March 21, fighting to get him help and tested for coronavirus. Doctor Pašagić was an epidemiologist and knew that his symptoms corresponded to coronavirus. While the agony and transfers from one health center to another continued for days, Doctor Pašagić was losing strength. No one came to test him, nor were there tests or equipment, according to everyone the wife contacted. 

And when he finally managed to get to the Podhrastovi clinic, his body could not withstand the anesthesia because he was too weak. 

His wife Elna states that as a healthcare worker, but also as someone who was best acquainted with her husband's condition, she requested that tests be done at Podhrastovi before putting him on a respirator. This was not done, which her husband confirmed to her two hours before he passed away. 

And as she said, her husband is not a victim of the coronavirus but of the healthcare system, the very system that completely failed in the case of 52-year-old Advija Kanlić, who died in severe agony because no one had enough sense to do something for that woman. The healthcare system also failed with 50-year-old Sadeta Omerović, who lay at home with a fever for days until her son was forced to threaten legal action to get her tested and admitted to the Podhrastovi clinic.

The head of the KS Crisis Staff, Aida Pilav, did not answer the questions of the Novinska agencija Patria today, adding that "now is neither the time nor the place for such questions".

To clarify why such an answer was given, we are publishing the questions asked: 

Did the patient who died yesterday, Š.P., at the Podhrastovi clinic have other illnesses and how did he get infected, considering that just fifteen days ago he was carrying out his activities normally, appearing on shows. 

When is a patient put on a respirator?