We have already talked about the problem of the lack of replantation shifts in “Facts”, now another example of how badly the system works. A child whose fingers were bitten off by a dog has one of his fingers sewn back on. The problem was that there was no one to sew it on. Thanks to the doctors, it worked again, but it’s time to organize it differently.
Professor Adam Maciejewski, who works at the Oncology Center in Gliwice, participated in the operation at the Upper Silesian Center for Children’s Health in Katowice. Doctors from Katowice had to bring Professor Maciejewski to the hospital, because there was no on-call duty in the whole country where it was possible to help a two-year-old child whose fingers had been bitten off by a dog.
– A two-year-old boy got off the bike, approached the property surrounded by a fence, put his hand through the fence and then the dog bit the boy – informs Commissioner Agnieszka Żyłka from the Municipal Police Headquarters in Katowice.
READ MORE: The two-year-old put his hand through the fence, lost two fingers
– Colleagues from Katowice called all over Poland, looking for someone who could take the child. This is the problem that if the hospitals that participate in this replantation service do not have an emergency replantation service, then there are also no staff – explains Dr. Adam Domanasiewicz, a surgeon at the Provincial Specialist Hospital in Wrocław.
04/03/2023 | Another such case recently. “There was no center in Poland that would perform emergency replantation”Maximilian was very lucky in misfortune. He lost his thumb, but it was possible to sew it back thanks to the quick and spontaneous action of doctors who came from Gliwice to Trzebnica – especially for a teenage patient. There is still no microsurgical duty for children in Poland. Marek Nowicki | TVN facts
Work on resolving the situation
We talked about this problem many times this spring. In TVN’s “Fakty” we described the cases of children and teenagers with their limbs cut off, who had no one to help them, because when they had a tragic accident, there was no replantation duty in Poland. We also asked the then Minister of Health about the lack of duty hours. At the beginning of April, Adam Niedzielski did not know what was going on, although he should have known, because the problem is not new. After our materials, however, something moved in the case.
– The situation has changed since spring. We have started talks with the Ministry of Health. At the beginning of June, a meeting was held at the Ministry of Health, where a certain road map was established – informs Paweł Maleta, president of the Polish Society of Reconstructive Surgery of the Movement Organs.
Ultimately, two centers for limb replantation, also for children, are to operate non-stop. – If we obtain a systematized replantation service, which will be under the care of the Ministry of Health and the National Health Fund, I think that such situations will become rarer – indicates Dr. Saint Jadwiga in Trzebnica.
For now, however, as in the previous week and in previous months and years, everything is done spontaneously, and the lack of a system means playing with the health and lives of patients.
Main photo source: Instagram.com/adammaciejewskimd