The doctor told his parents that he was the only doctor in the world who could perform certain operations, he gave the impression that he was always busy and that if he accepted a case it was a privilege, and sometimes recommended surgery, although he knew that physical deficiencies could not be corrected.
Investigators found the search envelopes with money in books from the library of the “Marie Curie” Hospital, stated the sources quoted by News.ro.
Gheorghe Burnei, accused of taking bribes and suspected of unauthorized experiments on children, was detained by the prosecutors of the Prosecutor’s Office of the Bucharest Tribunal, who request on Sunday a judge the preventive arrest of the orthopedic surgeon.
How the money got to him
According to the quoted sources, the doctor would not have asked directly for money for the operations, but would have hospitalized the children for a long time, repeatedly, and would have postponed the surgeries until he would have determined their parents to give him money.
In some situations, although there was no need to implant prostheses or medical devices, the doctor would have told the parents that an implant should be done to correct some physical deficiencies, the real reasons being either to get money for those prostheses or to do experiments.
Burnei would have told his parents that the prostheses are difficult to obtain and would have conditioned the surgery on their purchase from the company he collaborates with, Argonmed SRL, although medical devices were provided free of charge by the hospital in such cases.
The orthopedic surgeon allegedly used both approved medical devices and some specially created for him, which were not approved. Burnei allegedly used, in some surgeries, fragments of boiled beef bones and pieces of army tank filters, but also screws that he took from the trade, the quoted sources also showed.
The same sources stated that sometimes health problems were invented by doctor Gheorghe Burnei, and in some cases he would have implanted the wrong devices.
Investigators still have data like some surgeries performed by Gheorghe Burnei did not follow any medical procedure, that there were situations in which children operated by him died, but also cases in which children were left with permanent disabilities.
Gheorghe Burnei allegedly demanded amounts between 1,000 lei and 1,000 euros for an operation, according to the same sources.
Two files
The denunciation against the orthopedic surgeon Gheorghe Burnei was made in September, and the cause is aimed 17 acts of corruption committed between October and November, according to the Prosecutor’s Office of the Bucharest Tribunal.
Two colleagues from the “Marie Curie” Hospital in the Capital, from Gheorghe Burnei’s team, were heard on Saturday, as witnesses.
Two separate files were opened on the doctor’s name, investigated by the same prosecutor. One dates back two months, for taking bribes, after the parents of one of the children operated by the doctor made a complaint to the General Anticorruption Directorate.
Burnei’s second case concerns accusations of serious bodily injury and attempted murder, the quoted sources specified.
On December 6, Casa Jurnalistului presented the case of a girl, who, following 11 operations performed by Gheorghe Burnei, can barely get out of bed, after the doctor implanted an unapproved ceramic device.
Doctor Gheorghe Burnei is a university professor at the Department of Pediatric Surgery and Orthopedics of UMF “Carol Davila” in Bucharest and the head of the Pediatric Surgery and Orthopedics Clinic within the “Maria Sklodowska Curie” Hospital.
He performed six surgeries in the world premiere and 22 surgeries in the national premiere, according to his presentation on the website of the “Regina Maria” clinic network.
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