An emergency dispatcher in Sliven insisted on speaking personally with the woman, who later died in a taxi after being refused an ambulance. According to her relatives, this happened after they explicitly explained to him that she was deaf and mute and could not call.
The dispatcher’s response to the relatives was to find a ride to the emergency center. This was told to bTV by Mladen Minchev, who is the son-in-law of the deceased woman.
“I dialed 112 and asked them to call me an ambulance. They did and I told myself the three names, I explained where we were. I said what the victim’s condition was, that she was bad. I don’t know if it was a doctor, but he asked to speak with her that couldn’t be done because she is deaf and mute. He told me to get a ride to take her to the ER. They didn’t explain anything. I told them “the woman isn’t moving, her eyes are closed and she’s deaf. They insisted on talking with her”said Mladen Minchev.
In order to call a taxi, Minchev and his wife borrow money from neighbors. “I took BGN 20 from the neighbor and continued with the taxi. I carried her on my back down the path,” Minchev added.
“A child met me and said: ‘wait, they’re bringing grandma’. It was dark. I only saw them put the woman in the back. The daughter was crying. I took them to the Emergency Room and left. After a few hours I got a call from the office and they told me that the police wanted my contact details to contact me because the woman died in my car”explained Antoaneta Sheitanova, who takes people by taxi.
The director of the Emergency Center, Dr. Vasilisa Simeonova, refused to stand in front of the bTV camera, but explained that she was shocked by the behavior of the long-time employee. She said the fault was in the way the conversation was conducted and he wanted to hear the woman, which was not right.
Dr. Simeonova is considering disciplinary action for the dispatcher who received the report about the woman in serious condition.
The case is being investigated by the prosecutor’s office and “Medical supervision”.
