Author: BCI

Radoslav was brought by helicopter from Montana

Doctors from the paediatrics clinic in ”Mama and I” saved the life of five-month-old Radoslav from Vidin. Thanks to the quick and adequate response of the team on duty – Dr. Ignat Gramatikov, Dr. Bilyana Metodieva, nurse Tsvetelina Todorova and excellent coordination with the medical helicopter team, the Ministry of Interior Pleven and the doctors from the Montana Hospital, only half an hour after the helicopter took off the child was admitted to the intensive care unit of the hospital complex and saved.

“The Montana hospital approached us because Radoslav was in severe respiratory failure, hypoxia, carbon retention and needed intensive care. Colleagues from Montana organized the transport with the medical helicopter, we quickly formed a team and thanks to the special neonatology ambulance of ‘Mom and Me’, equipped with a transport couch, we managed in the most flawless way to save the baby’s life”, informed Dr. Velimir Simov, head of the pediatric ward.

Radoslav is now feeling well, his mother is by his side and his treatment continues.

“I am extremely grateful to the doctors from ‘ Mama and I’ for saving my baby. I am grateful for the quick joint efforts of the paediatric clinic teams and the medical helicopter. Without them he would not have been able to survive,” Radoslav’s mother said through tears.

On the same day, another child from Vidin was admitted to the intensive care unit of the clinic. He was admitted with bilateral bronchopneumonia and breathing difficulties. The parents, who heard about the transport of a child at risk by helicopter, decided to seek help from the paediatricians of ‘Mama and I’.

“I only trust Dr. Simov, so we took the risky trip to the hospital and lo and behold, Christo, who is one year and 7 months old, was saved. Our choice was right,” said the mother Rositsa.

Currently, more than 25 children are being treated at the clinic

Early this morning, Baba (“Grandma”) Marta and her assistant Martenichka arrived at ‘Mama and I’ and surprised the little patients of the pediatric clinic and the team on duty. They tied a martenitsa for health on each child’s hand, wishing them to be white and red, blushing and laughing.

One of the youngest patients, Preslav, four months old, happily accepted to be hugged by a smiling grandmother. Gabriela, who cried frightened at first, later came to Grandma Martha herself, pulled up her apron and said, “Now we can hug each other so I can get better faster.” Bogdan, Kaloyan and Denis, told of their exploits in kindergarten and school and said that although they were big pranksters, they wanted to get back there healthy quickly.

The eldest of all, who Grandma Marta burped for health, was 11-year-old Tsvetoslav. He shared where he broke his arm, but smiling said he was surprised to see Grandma Martha at the hospital.

Baba Marta and Martenichka tied martenitsa on the hands of the on-duty team in the clinic, wishing them to be healthy, smiling and enjoying more healed little patients.

Currently, more than 25 children are being treated at the clinic. Most are girls and boys under one year old, mainly with acute viral infections.

In just a year and a half, the newest and most modern clinic for mothers and children has become the leading center for diagnosis and treatment of children with congenital anomalies in the country. In the first six months since the clinic opened, 66 children have been diagnosed and treated at ‘Mama and I’, and in the past 2024, 229 children with such problems have been treated.

“The fact that more and more families are turning to us is proof of the success of the multidisciplinary approach we apply, the only one in the country,” said Dr Velimir Simov, head of the paediatrics department. “Our teams will continue to see, without fail and around the clock, the most severe cases. We are proud that at ‘Mama and I’ we are developing paediatrics very successfully and we strive to cover the whole pathology and the whole range of examinations to help children and their parents. Our goal is to provide quality medical genetic counseling, which is the basis of prevention of genetic diseases and their consequences,” says Dr. Simov.

All state-of-the-art diagnostic, treatment, technology and specialist options are available to young patients and their parents. Imaging, clinical laboratory, immunological and genetic tests are performed as quickly as possible and in one place. The paediatrics clinic employs specialists of European level whose expertise patients seek – Assoc. Maria Gaidarova, paediatric nephrologist, prof. Dobrin Konstantinov, paediatric oncohaematologist, prof. Stefan Stefanov, paediatric rheumatologist and others.

Many of the young patients have diagnoses whose etiology needs to be further refined. Follow-up for luxations is done by established paediatric orthopaedists and traumatologists under the guidance of Prof. Asparuh Asparuhov. Neuromuscular diseases, the whole spectrum of epilepsy, children with neuro-psychiatric development disorders, including autism, are consulted with the leading neurologist prof. Plamen Bojinov and his team. The genetic laboratory of ‘Mama and I’, under the leadership of Assoc. Elitsa Becheva-Kraichir, applies an algorithm of specialized tests for timely and accurate diagnosis, analysis, interpretation approaches and long-term follow-up.

“There is a bench in Stara Zagora, placed by the National Alliance of People with Rare Diseases in Bulgaria, which says: “There is an invisible city of 400 000 people with rare diagnoses in Bulgaria”. We have been talking about this for years – with individual specialists, with people from the Alliance, with patient organisations and with dozens of our patients. But there is no strategy at national level,” says Assoc.prof. Becheva-Kraichir.

The specialists remind that the best treatment is prevention and follow-up, before the development of symptoms and complications, and that this is how to work according to the most up-to-date directives for good medical practice, modern paediatrics and genetics.