The call of a doctor, after Ion Iliescu stayed for two months: a sincere discussion about how we choose to die in Romania
Former President of Romania, Ion Iliescu, died on Tuesday afternoon, at SRI Agrippa Ionescu Hospital, where he was admitted to the Intestive Therapy Section, on June 9th.
Iuliu Torje, primary physician in anesthesia and intensive care at the ECMO Center Klinicum Kassel in Germany, advocates, with the passing of the former head of state, for a discussion on the adoption of a legal framework for palliative care.
“Romania, 35 years after the first free elections, does not have a law for palliative care. It does not have a medical or social culture of limiting unnecessary invasive therapies. It has no legal tools to support a man to leave, quietly, when the fight has ended,” the doctor stressed.
Torje pointed out that Iliescu was artificially kept alive in recent weeks, in the hospital, given that, in his case, medicine did not bring hope, but only suffering.
“He died slowly, in a way that I do not want anyone: tracheostomized, cancer, with multiple comorbidities, artificially held in life for weeks, in an intensive therapy, which, in his case, did not extend the agony. Active medicine no longer brings hope, but only suffering.
In his opinion, in such situations, the suffering is too high and meaningless, and the dignity of the patient is not respected, which is advantageous that a real debate in society is needed on how the end of life can be managed for those who cannot offer healing solutions.
“No one deserves such an end. No one should be transformed into an inert body, related to devices, with a silent tracheostoma, into a room where there is no hope … Just the silence between the monitors,” wrote Torje in the message published on his Facebook page.
“And maybe, precisely by his suffering, we should start a sincere discussion about how we choose to die in Romania. Or, more correctly, about how we are not allowed to die with dignity,” concluded the anesthesiologist in the message indicating the legislative vacuum in the case of patients at the terminal stage.
Ion Iliescu died at 95
The government announced the death of the former president during the afternoon. Subsequently, the doctors from Agrippa Ionescu Hospital said that Ion Iliescu died on Tuesday, at 3:55 pm, after 57 days of hospitalization.
The former president was diagnosed with complaint cancer during hospitalization. His health has begun to deteriorate from Saturday.
“The multidisciplinary medical team has made every effort to ensure the necessary care and treatment,” the SRI hospital said.
Ion Iliescu will be buried on Thursday, August 7, when it will be a national mourning day. The burial ceremony of the former president will only take place in the presence of family and close persons.
