August 25, 2020 – After a moped accident, a young man needed emergency surgery. Since his life was in danger, the doctors couldn’t spend much time waiting around for the results. Now he is stable, but positive for COVID-19, and the Varaždin hospital is short of 25 medical staff until September 7.
According to a police report, the young man crashed into a tree in Vinica at around 2.10 am. “The nature of the injuries required urgent and immediate surgery on the patient’s head. Subsequent testing determined that the patient was positive for COVID-19,” said Dr. Kudelić, a neurosurgeon who operated on the young man. The young man is now stable, and not in danger of death, reports Jutarnji.hr. Since he operated on the injured young man, Dr. Kudelić is also among those who will work from home for the next 14 days. In addition to his work as a neurosurgeon, Dr. Nenad Kudelić is also the director of the Varaždin General Hospital.
After the emergency care of a young man who was in a traffic accident on Saturday, August 22, medics had to self-isolate. Thus, the Varaždin hospital was left without two neurosurgeons, four anesthesiologists, two surgeons, and 17 nurses.
Now patients are worried and are asking if their scheduled surgeries will be delayed. Dr. Kudelić confirms that there will be a delay. He announced the need for a temporary reorganisation of the work of the Department of Anesthesiology and the Department of Surgical Diseases.
“Some of the operations, which were planned by doctors who are now in self-isolation, will be postponed for 14 days, and all emergencies will still be taken care of as before,” said Dr. Kudelić, one of the most respected domestic neurosurgeons. Therefore, his temporary absence from the operating room is a great disappointment for the patients.
Varaždin Hospital, like the County itself, is strict when it comes to measures to combat coronavirus. For example, although they do not have to do so officially, in addition to patients coming for surgery, tests are performed on all patients admitted through the emergency service to that hospital. That turned out to be a very good move.
“Thanks to that, another patient with an asymptomatic COVID-19 infection was detected in a short time, due to which, unfortunately, a certain number of employees ended up in self-isolation. Due to such security measures, uncontrolled penetration of the virus among healthcare workers and patients was prevented,” Dr. Kudelić emphasised, pointing out that the hospital has no infected employees. In addition to the hospital staff, one team from the Emergency Medical Service, and two primary care teams from Varaždin’s medical circles are in self-isolation.
Varaždin County, due to, as they say, the disrupted situation regarding healthcare, is appealing to the population not to “take precautionary epidemiological measures lightly.”
Controversial wedding
Varaždin County has so far coped well with the coronavirus crisis. Since the beginning of the pandemic, there have been 117 registered cases, 15 of which are attributed to the county because of the reported place of residence of those individuals. Last weekend will sadly spoil this favourable statistic. At one wedding in the vicinity of Ivanec, four people were infected.
COVID-19 affected a newlywed, two members of the band and some guests from Switzerland. Since there were a large number of guests at the wedding, it is believed that there will be more confirmed infections in the days to come.
At the moment, there are 49 infected people in the county, nine of whom are being treated at the Varaždin General Hospital. There are 270 people in isolation, who were connected with the sick.
Dr. Nenad Kudelić and his colleagues should return to work on September 7 if the tests are negative.
For the latest travel info, bookmark our main travel info article, which is updated daily.
Read the Croatian Travel Update in your language – now available in 24 languages
Join the Total Croatia Travel INFO Viber community.
