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| Adrielly Vieira dos Santos |
For lack of a physician, girl who was shot in the head waited 8 hours for surgery on Christmas
Rio de Janeiro – A shot in the head turned an enchanting Christmas Eve into tragedy for 10-year old Adrielly dos Santos Vieira. With the doll that she won in her arms, the girl crossed the street to show it to her parents when she fell to the ground, near the community of Urubuzinho in Pilares (or Piedade). Taken to the Salgado Filho Hospital, in Meier, by an uncle shortly after midnight, the child faced more absurd drama: the lack of a neurosurgeon on duty to try to save her life.
With the bullet lodged in her head, Adrielly still had to wait eight hours for the arrival of another doctor to do the surgery. The surgery lasted five hours and she is now hospitalized in critical condition in an induced coma and under observation for 48 hours.
According to the child’s mother, Adriana dos Santos, 33, the family was late in learning that the girl had been hit by a bullet. “I thought she had stumbled and had a cut on her head. We were only informed of the shot at 3am, after an X-ray had been done,” she said. Desperate, she explained that the only other neurosurgeon arrived at around 8:30 in the morning.
Mother of girl at the hospital door
Outraged, the family tried to storm the hospital. The father, Marco Antônio Vieira, 36, was restrained by security guards and felt sick. “Nobody informs us how she is. My wife is shaking. We work hard and pay taxes from our salaries so we can get this (medical) treatment. It’s a shame,” said the father outraged.
Antônio also thought the injury was only a cut and only found out that Adrielly had been hit by a bullet at the hospital. “There were many fireworks. I didn’t realize that there were shots. We know now through the police that the doctor arrived. I want my daughter alive. I want a solution, I don’t want trouble,” said Marco Antônio told Globo TV, at the door of the hospital on Tuesday morning.
Girl’s father shows picture of his daughter
In the afternoon, he said that the doctors were able to remove the bullet from her head, but said it was too early to know whether the girl will suffer aftereffects. There is still no prognosis for Adrielly to leave the hospital. “I managed to see my daughter. I’m calmer. I ask God for her survival. All I want is for her to recover well,” he said.
Head official on duty did not report the absence of the doctor
The press office of the Municipal Secretariat of Health and Civil Defense said the neurosurgeon Adão Orlando Gonçalves Crespo, who should have arrived at the hospital at 8pm on the 24th, didn’t show up for work. An administrative investigation has been initiated to investigate.
Headline: Girl shot in the head goes seven hours without a doctor
The secretary, Hans Dohmann, said that both the physician and the head official on duty, Enio Eduardo Lima Lopes, who delayed in communicating the missing doctor, even being more than four hours late and didn’t request the transfer of girl, could be punished.
“The Municipal Secretariat of Health and Civil Defense laments and repudiates the behavior of the professional and will punish the doctor,” said a statement. According to the department, there were 18 neurosurgeons on call scheduled for the Christmas night shift in the city’s four biggest emergency rooms.
To RJ TV, of Globo TV, the neurosurgeon reportedly stated that he had resigned from his position, a fact that the department denies. The doctors were not available for comment.
Police investigating the source of the shot
In the 28th Precinct (Campinho), investigators await the family of the child to testify. The initial goal is to find out the source of the shooting. Police are investigating whether the bullet came from Urubuzinho drug traffickers, who, according to witnesses, celebrated Christmas shooting bullets into the air. The community Urubuzinho is still not peaceful. But according to Adriana, Amália Street, where the family lives and where the girl was shot, is quiet. “We would never imagine that it could happen on our doorstep. The street is quiet. This kind of thing never happened there. Shooting on Christmas is shameless, absurd”, said Cristiane Vieira, 40, the girl’s aunt.
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