Berechet Rusu Hirit

Since our firm's creation in 2016, we aimed at making a difference in the Romanian legal landscape by committing to facilitate the access to legal services of people who otherwise wouldn’t afford legal representation and justice. Our law firm has a strong commitment to pro bono cases based on our belief that helping and supporting people in their causes and fights for justice is one of our primary roles as lawyers.

For instance, the health system in Romania has been marked by an inefficient dialogue between the involved stakeholders - patients, doctors, authorities, NGOs/medical associations – mostly due to numerous legislative changes, vague regulations, lack of clear norms and corruption in some of the Romanian institutions. For example, the health reform in 2006 in Romania has been amended 119 times, but no major changes have been brought to the issue of malpractice.

Under these circumstances, the problem of malpractice has remained a field where none of the stakeholders have clear opinions or coherent involvement in malpractice cases; therefore, many of the cases end with courts rejecting such accusations and leaving patients and/or victims with no chance for a fair trial (that would hold the responsible parties accountable and thus prevent similar cases).

In this context, Berechet Rusu Hirit has taken on several malpractice cases and has committed to bring light in this area, given our expertise and the problems we identified in our 15-year experience in this field, among which:

• Uneducated population when it comes to patients’ rights (according the Romanian Patients’ Association, 9 out of 10 patients are not familiar with their rights and they cannot know when their rights are violated);
• Excessive bureaucracy that discourages patients from accusing the responsible parties in case of a potential malpractice;
• Lack of transparency in this area (there is no centralisation of malpractice cases and the responsible doctors);
• Extremely high costs for a filing and supporting a case of malpractice;
• A long period of time for resolving malpractice cases.

This is a very complex problem to be addressed to all stakeholders, especially that the cases of malpractice involving negligent professionals also affects the vast majority of doctors whose reputation are intact due to their competence, professionalism and dedication.

One of the current cases that partner Madalina Berechet has embarked on is that of a one year old boy (Ayan Mutu – a perfectly healthy child, with no medical records before the misdiagnosis), who died following the doctors’ negligence and professional incompetence at the pediatric department of the Valcea City Hospital in Romania.

In 2019, our law firm has made one of its missions to support the family’s fight for justice, so that their struggle may prevent other similar cases – especially given that our research revealed seven other cases of malpractice that ended in young patients’ deaths at the same department of the hospital; they all remained unresolved in the past years.

This case, which is ongoing, has revealed a series of problems in the Romanian health system, which our law firm hopes to address on the long term:

• Lack of communication with the patient’s carers;
• Negligence and questionable professional competence of some doctors – thus affecting the good reputation of the entire medical guild;
• Lack of protocol in some specialised departments;
• Lack of protocol when transferring a critical patient;
• Negligence of certain emergency doctors (when the patient’s condition was worsening);
• The attempt to hide the premises of the case by modifying medical documents and false statements;
• Postponing the official proceedings, to the detriment of obtaining and preserving evidence.

In this context, our involvement in this case – and other similar ones - aims, in the long term, at saving lives, through responsible behaviours and solutions for both patients and doctors, by stating the problem, identifying and accepting the truth, educating society, initiating a constructive dialogue between stakeholders, as well as by finding, together, viable solutions to increase the quality of the medical actions and reducing the risk of malpractice.

Berechet Rusu Hirit also helped the family found the Ayan Association, which aims at supporting people take action in case they suspect an act of malpractice. We also plan to assist and represent all the individuals who will ask the Ayan Association for help in identifying and dealing with a medical error.