As the Romanian Project Coordinator for JUSTRI (www.justri.org) I get “copied in” on all relevant emails. Last Tuesday evening one particular message caught my attention; it was from Dr. Luminita Ene in Bucharest. She was treating a very sick patient with meningitis but only had enough medication to treat him for 5 days and the patient required three weeks to have a chance of surviving. So she urgently needed an emergency supply of life-saving medication for this child.
After that initial email I witnessed a flurry of messages initially from Dr. Mike Youle furthering an appeal to Justri supporters to help. The responses came in thick and fast and over the course of just 2 days I read over 30 emails. In those 30 emails between all involved they had managed to source a “compassionate donation” of the required medication which, in usual circumstances would take over two weeks to secure.
The next challenge was logistical; getting the medication to Bucharest as quickly as possible bearing in mind it was now Friday evening so a courier “next day delivery” meant Monday morning at the earliest. This is where I played my part and offered to fly to Bucharest to make sure it got there in the quickest possible time and was kept stable i.e. refrigerated as long as possible. I took the early flight and managed to deliver the medication to Lumi’s hospital by 5pm (3pm UK time) on the Saturday afternoon.
In a little over three days from the initial appeal from the doctors in Bucharest the medication was securely stored in the hospital’s refrigerator and ready to be used. I personally think that is a fantastic performance and shows great teamwork from a dedicated a caring group of individuals working together. I am very proud to be able to have played my part. We hope this will help the patient involved and highlights what can be achieved.
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