There are 96 more days until justice will be done for Andrei. After 16 months of stalling over the case of teenager Andrei Marius Dragan's death, there is hope that the culprits will be brought to justice. Following multiple complaints filed by The Foundation For The Defense Of The Citizens Against State Abuses, the Târgu Jiu District Court decided that prosecutors must complete the criminal prosecution and send to trial those responsible for Andrei's death by June 30, 2026 at the latest.
The court's decision comes after a long period of institutional blockage in investigating the facts that led to Andrei's death at the County Emergency Hospital (SJU) Târgu Jiu. On the night of November 11-12, 2024, 16- year old Andrei Marius Drăgan died as a result of the on-call doctor's refusal to operate on him, despite the fact that the legislation on patient's rights, as well as the emergency protocols in force, required immediate action.
The criminal case in which the culprits of Andrei's death are being investigated has been in the same phase since November 2024, without being finalized more than 16 months after the investigation began. For a significant period, the investigations have been carried out exclusively in rem, and now they are directly targeting surgeon Valentin Neagu, the doctor on duty at the SJU Târgu Jiu, who refused to perform surgery on the night of the death, as well as the ambulance service doctor responsible for managing the case during the transfer between hospitals.
FACIAS is demanding justice for Andrei and calls on the prosecutors to strictly respect the deadline set by the court and to urgently process all remaining evidence so that the criminal case can be resolved without further delay. Those responsible must be held responsible.
This is one of the cases in the FACIAS campaign, which aims to initiate a legislative reform to set short and clear deadlines for settling malpractice cases, eliminate the financial blockages in these investigations, so that compensation is fair and awarded on time to compensate patients for the real damages suffered.