​In the current health care system, it is not beneficial for anyone – not for patients, not for doctors, not for the Romanian state – that’s why the Donate Viață Association proposes to conduct a pilot project here after building a hospital equipped with advanced technologies from scratch, from which the reform of the healthcare system in Romania will begin:

“We want to convince the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Labour, the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Finance that we can do a pilot project together that will help us together start the reform of the Romanian healthcare system. Because this system means each of us, and in this system no one benefits: neither patients, nor doctors, nor nurses, nor the Romanian state and CNAS. We all see that this is bad, and yet we continue to spin the same wheel for 35 years.”

“I believe that this hospital, in which 350 thousand people have invested, is the best place and time to start something. Maybe with this minister and this government, or with the next minister and the next government, we should finish it,” says Oana Georgiou, vice-president of the Give Life Association.

The story of a hospital built from scratch on donations and sponsorship: it all started with the toilets at the end of the hall of the Marie Curie Oncology Unit

The construction of the first children’s oncology hospital in Romania, which was built by the Dăruieste Viață association with donations and sponsors and is now being handed over to the Romanian state, began in 2018.

In the first phase, the association, founded by Carmen Uskatu and Oana Georgiou, wanted to equip the salons of the oncology department of the Marie Curie Children’s Hospital with individual toilets, considering that there was only one toilet at the end of the corridor.

The idea to build a new hospital from scratch arose after it turned out that it was impossible to equip the halls with toilets.

Hospital for children with cancer, built from scratch by the Donate Life Association / Photo: Inquam Photos – Octav Ganea

“We started with infrastructure, because when we came to the Marie Curie hospital and tried to help the children’s oncology department, we knew that there were no toilets in every room and that this would be the first step to change the conditions in which doctors and patients live, we found out , that we can’t do it because it’s an old infrastructure and we need something from scratch, as our architect told us at the time,” says Oana Georgiou today.

“We started with the infrastructure, together we built a 9-story hospital with an area of ​​12,000 square meters, which is currently equipped with the most modern equipment. In principle, we have solved this part of the infrastructure. Now we are very happy that we can establish partnership relations with the Marie Curie hospital employees,” says the vice-president of the “Gift Life” Association.

Carmen Uscatu: In Romania, a child who finds out he has cancer goes to hell

The president of the “Gift Life” association, Carmen Uscatu, says that every day she tries to put herself in the place of a mother who finds out that her child has cancer: “And it’s not very difficult for me to do this, because I often get calls from mothers and ask where is the best treat the child The only positive thing I have found in this child’s life and in this family’s life is that the child has a mother there to deal with the hell she goes through when she finds out she has cancer.”

This hell, about which Carmen Uscatu speaks, “is not only caused by the disease itself, this hell is caused by the fact that most hospitals in the country have communal toilets, it is caused by the fact that there are not always drugs that can be used to treat them, and they have to to call an acquaintance from abroad to bring them these medicines. It’s hell that he endures every day when he has to go from one hospital to another if he needs an operation and he’s in an oncology ward where he doesn’t even have access to an intensive care unit because these are adult wards.”

At the moment, with the current conditions in Romanian hospitals, even doctors can’t say that they can do everything for sick children and their patients, says Carmen Uskatu: “I put myself in the shoes of parents, but I think that all the doctors here are very easy to put yourself in their place and see that you can’t say you did everything you could for that child, when in fact you can’t treat them according to the things you’ve learned: when you don’t have access to medicine, when you don’t have access to infrastructure, when you don’t have access to a multidisciplinary team, when you don’t have access to research, you can’t say you’ve done everything. You can only say you tried.”

The upside to all this “in the hell we all live in”? “The positive point is this project that united us: more than 350,000 people who donated, more than 8,000 companies that sponsored the project, Marie Curie doctors, doctors in the country, our employees from abroad who united us and which encourage us to dream, because this infrastructure will not save people by itself. This cooperation is necessary,” says Carmen Uskat.

“I think I have brought so many people together, and the commitment I have to make here is that I will do everything in my power to keep them together,” says the president of the Donate Life Association “.

Isolators for children with transplants in the hospital built by Asociatia Dăruieste Viață / Photo: HotNews.ro

Dăruiește Viață signed the documents according to which the hospital, built with a donation of 350,000 Romanians, is handed over to the Romanian state. They have to build a second hospital

​Association Donate Life, founded by Carmen Uscatu and Oana Georgiou, signed the documents last week according to which the hospital for children with cancer, built with the donations of more than 350,000 Romanians and the sponsorship of more than 8,000 companies, will be transferred to Romania. state.

The construction and equipment of the hospital were ready in the fall of last year, and the procedures for the operating permit are currently ongoing.

The hospital, built by Asociatia Dăruieste Viață exclusively with donations and sponsors, was handed over to the Marie Curie Hospital, which is under the Ministry of Health.

The hospital gives life in numbers:

• The construction and equipment of the first hospital for children with cancer in Romania cost 53 million euros.

• More than 350,000 Romanians donated to build the hospital. The total amount collected from Romanian donations was 20 million euros.

• 8,000 companies became sponsors of the project. The Petrom company provided the largest sponsorship – it offered 10 million euros for the construction of the hospital.

• The hospital has 9 levels and will have oncology, radiation therapy, surgery and neurosurgery departments.

• The hospital also has a cinema and a children’s playground.

• The construction of the hospital started in 2018.

“Donate Life” Association begins a new chapter: will build a second hospital building from scratch, where the Marie Curie Children’s Hospital will be completely relocated.