The minor irregularities in the provision of medical assistance by the KBC Split hospital and other medical institutions in Split to reporter Matijanić refers to the fact that Matijanić’s check-up at the infectious disease unit’s emergency room on 2 August 2022 was performed by a resident, which, the analysis reads, was not completely in line with the rules, and also to the incomplete medical records after the second intervention of a team of the county’s emergency medicine department as well as to the procedural irregularities in the autopsy of the deceased patient.
Those irregularities have not adversely impacted the analysis of the whole case, an official of the Health Ministry, Mirjana Tadić, told the press conference on Wednesday in Zagreb.
The above-mentioned irregularities are also the reason why the findings of the inspection will be forwarded to the Croatian Medical Chamber and the Office of the Attorney-General (DORH) in Split.
After Matijanić, who was diagnosed with COVID-19 and had underlying conditions, died in his home in Split on 5 August, Matijević’s partner, reporter Andrea Topić, claimed that he did not receive adequate medical assistance.
Immediately after these accusations were made by Topić, on 6 August, the health ministry ordered the inspection into medical assistance to the reporter.
The findings of the inspection presented on Wednesday afternoon show that “the death was the consequence of unpredictable, that is, rapid-developing course of myocarditis and lung changes as complications of COVID-19.”
The combination of two cases of acute inflammatory developments of vital organs — heart and lungs — led to the rapid deterioration of heart and lung functions, resulting in the cardio-respiratory arrest of the patient. The rapid deterioration of the condition of the patient shows that rapidly progressing myocarditis was crucial in causing the death in a very short period, reads the analysis.
The complications of COVID-19 were coupled with the patient’s chronic and autoimmune diseases and medication non-adherence, as confirmed by the autopsy report.
During the two-hour press conference, reporters asked why nobody in the healthcare system suspected a possible more serious course of the COVID-19 diagnosis with Matijanić and why a medical team of the Split County’s emergency medicine institute had not ambulanced him to the hospital after they visited him at his home on 5 August, and Matijanić died 90 minutes after they left his flat.
Infectious diseases specialist Miroslav Mayer explained that during his first check-up at the infectious disease unit’s emergency room in Split, Matijanić had only mild symptoms, and his positive test for COVID had been done just 12 hours before that examination.
It is an extremely small chance that those findings could indicate high risks. I am sorry that an X-ray of his heart and lungs had not been taken; however, we have the COVID epidemic, and over 100 and more patients come to the emergency room on a daily basis, and therefore it can happen that patients with milder symptoms are usually discharged after the check-up and told to come back if their condition deteriorates, said Mayer, explaining that Matijanić was also advised to come back to this emergency room of the KBC Split.
Infectious disease specialist Ivan Puljiz, a member of the ministry’s inspection team, said that the resident physician who examined Matijanić on 2 August had advised him to go to the hospital in the event of the deterioration of his condition and also that his GP issued a referral for his admission to the infectious disease unit’s emergency room.
The infectious disease unit’s emergency room was available. He could have come. He should not have waited for the second or third day or telephone calls to the county’s emergency medicine institute, said Puljiz admitting that “after a battle, everyone is a general.”
The press conference was addressed by health Minister Vili Beroš , other members of the inspection team, and the late Matijanić’s GP, and all of them extended condolences once again at Matijanić’s death.
