17.03.2025.
Deputy Head of Military Medical Academy: Condition of patients from North Macedonia serious and complex
Deputy Head of the Military Medical Academy, Col. Prim. Dr. Ivan Leković, said today that, after the tragic fire in Kočani, Republic of North Macedonia, six patients were transported to the Military Medical Academy, and that one patient is receiving treatment at the Niš Military Hospital. All of them are in a serious and complex condition, he stressed.
- They were transported by three ambulances and a Serbian Armed Forces transport aircraft. All patients admitted to the Military Medical Academy are young, born between 1998 and 2007. One patient was transported to the Niš Military Hospital by military ambulance. All patients are in the intensive care unit and their condition is serious and complex. We are taking all measures to provide them with intensive treatment and we have used all our resources to help those people and to help the people of North Macedonia – stressed the Deputy Head of the Military Medical Academy.Speaking about the treatment of the injured, Colonel Leković stressed that all the patients are in very serious condition.
- Apart from the burns that they all have suffered, the patients also show signs and symptoms of carbon monoxide poisoning, as well as inhalation injuries, i.e. damage to the respiratory organs and lungs caused by hot air and chemicals released in the fire. Treatment is long-term, it requires a number of surgeries, and the involvement of numerous other specialists - pulmonologists, cardiologists, neurologists, and plastic surgeons. All surgical procedures will be performed in several stages - certain incisions will have to be made, the damaged tissue will have to be removed, and these areas will have to be covered with different types of flap. All of this requires time and a lot of effort - said Colonel Leković, adding that the patient admitted to the Niš Military Hospital has undergone surgery and is in serious condition, too.
The Deputy Head of the Military Medical Academy reiterated that a six-member team has been sent to North Macedonia by military ambulance and has remained there - two plastic surgeons, an anaesthesiologist, an anaesthesiologist assistant and two scrub nurses.
- They have remained in Skopje and are assisting their North Macedonian colleagues in providing surgical treatment to the patients. They will stay there as long as necessary - emphasized Colonel Leković.
Speaking about the new evacuation of patients, Colonel Leković says that our military transport aircraft will land in Skopje, where it will take over 12 new patients, and that after their condition has been triaged and assessed, they will be admitted to the Military Medical Academy and the Clinical Centre of Serbia.
