February 5, 2023 - 6 months after the death of journalist Vladimir Matijanić, a protest will take place today, reports Index.hr.

Today, a protest called "Sorry to bother you, I can't breathe" will be held in Zagreb, exactly six months after the death of journalist Vladimir Matijanić, who died on August 5 last year, after five days of not only not being provided with medical care rather, he did not even receive an adequate medical examination.

The protest is organized by the Croatian Journalists' Association (HND), which announced that the gathering will begin at 12:00 in front of the Journalists' House, and then at 1:00 p.m. the procession will start to St Mark's Square.

It is protesting against the system that killed Matijanić and for all other victims of the healthcare system, which does not work in Croatia. HND advocates for an independent investigation into the circumstances of Vladimir Matijanić's death, as well as for the resignation of Minister of Health Vili Beroš.

Petition for a new investigation and resignation of Vili Beroš
Andrea Topić, journalist and life partner of Vladimir Matijanić, Vice President of the Split-Dalmatia County HND Branch Gabrijela Radanović, Index journalist Ilko Ćimić, HND Vice President Branko Mijić and HND President Hrvoje Zovko will speak on St Mark's Square.

With this action, HND insists on the demands set out in the petition signed by almost 5,000 citizens, in which they demand that a new, independent commission conduct investigations and determine whether there are failures in the treatment of colleague Matijanić, and that the Minister of Health, Vili Beroš, who in the failures of the system he manages, does not sees nothing controversial - step down from that responsible position.

This is not a protest against healthcare workers, they are equally victims of a system that does not work. And there are fewer and fewer of them left to work in Croatia. And that's why we protest.

Against the system that killed our colleague Vladimir Matijanić. For an independent investigation into the circumstances of his death. For the resignation of Minister of Health Vili Beroš. So that it doesn't happen again to anyone...", reads the HND press release on the eve of the protest.

ZET announced a schedule change
During the protest over the death of journalist Vladimir Matijanić, ZET warns, the timetable will change.

They say that from 12:45 to 2:30 p.m. tram traffic will be suspended on Ilica from Ulica Republike Austrije to Trg ban Josip Jelačić, Jurišićev and Ulica Franje Rački, then Zrinjevac, Frankopanski and Savska to Vodnikova Ulica.

Tram lines will operate on changed routes in both directions:

Line 6: Črnomerec - Ulica Republike Austrije - Vodnikova - Main station - Bus station - Sopot
Line 11: Črnomerec - Ulica Republike Austrije - Vodnikova - Main station - Draškovićeva - Vlaška - Dubec
Line 12: Ljubljanica - Savska cesta - Ulica grada Vukovara - Držićeva - Šubićeva - Kvaternikov trg - Dubrava
Street 13: Zitnjak - Vukovar Street - Savska - Vodnikova - Main Station - Draškovićeva - Kneza Mislava Street - Victims of Fascism Square - Kvaternikov Square
Line 14: Savski bridge - Savska cesta - Vodnikova - Main station - Branimirova - Draškovićeva - Mihaljevac
Line 17: Prečko - Savska - Vodnikova - Main station - Draškovićeva - Kneza Mislava Street - Trg žrtava fašizma - Borongaj

September 16, 2022 - The Croatian Journalists Association (HND) yesterday started a petition, demanding a new, independent commission to re-investigate the circumstances around the death of their late member, Vladimir Matijanić. 

We have covered this scandal, rattling Croatian society this summer, because of how publicly the details of Matijanić's passing were discussed and how many perceived his death as avoidable. There was a brief investigation by a commission formed by the Minister of Health, Vili Beroš. That commission predictably found that nobody in the healthcare system in Croatia did anything wrong.

Now, the Croatian Journalists Association is calling for another look, by an independent group of experts. The people in the previous commission are reported to be in direct conflict of interest, which makes their findings less legitimate. The Association is asking the Prime Minister to make sure a thorough investigation gets done, including interviewing witnesses. They additionally request that Vili Beroš, the health minister gets removed from the position, because of his embarrassing, scandalous and unacceptable behaviour throughout this situation, but also because of the results of his commission which previously investigated the death of their colleague.

If you want, you can sign the petition here.

There are two things to note here, however: it is extremely bizarre that the association of the nation's journalists, the people whose job and calling it is to ask the questions directly to the people in power, acting in the best interest of the public, feels like the best (only?) way to pressure a Prime Minister is to start a chage.org petition. One of the explanations for that decision could be that they wanted to garner international attention to the Croatia's mistreatment of Matijanić and a failed investigation of his death, in which case it's even more bizarre that there isn't an English translation of the text of the petition, so the international readers (such as yourself) don't really know what exactly they'd be signing!

August 10, 2022 – On August 5, Index’s journalist Vladimir Matijanić, aged fifty-one, tragically passed away due to the negligence of the Croatian health system. With several autoimmune diseases, he tested positive for covid-19 on August 2. Both he and his girlfriend spent days trying to convince the hospital staff to take them seriously. The emergency services only ever looked at him once, refusing to take him into the hospital even when he was extremely ill. Matijanić's colleagues at Index recounted the key mistakes of the system.

For context, TCN first reported the news here, followed by the reaction of the Croatian Health Ministry who ordered an inspection into the medical assistance to the reporter. Understandably, the way the hospital staff treated the dying journalist did not go down well in Croatia, causing public outrage.

At Index, his premature death prompted many of his colleagues to examine the extent to which the poor reaction of the Croatian healthcare system was responsible for this tragic outcome.

It is simply unacceptable that Matijanić, a man with so many serious underlying diseases, which brought him at particular risk for a severe form of covid-19, despite persistent inquiries and even a trip to the hospital, did not manage, over several days, to receive thorough and adequate examination and/or hospitalisation and to receive medicine intended for the prevention of severe forms of disease meant precisely for people of his health profile, which Minister Vili Beroš stated that “we have verified it exists” in stocks in the health system.

“We called ten times and begged them to admit Vlado to the hospital. They refused”

Questions arise as to how much and in what ways the health care system is responsible for Matijanić's death. In cooperation with several medical experts, Index took to list the key mistakes in order.

Firstly, the main culprit for Matijanić's death, just like for the death of many other patients with covid-19 and other diseases, was a poorly managed health care system, where a part of the doctors and medical staff are its victims, along with regular citizens who need help.

The system did not properly advise Matijanić about vaccination

Matijanić claimed that doctors advised him not to get vaccinated because he had several autoimmune diseases, primarily Sjogren's syndrome and suspected sarcoidosis, as well as dermatopolymyositis, hypergammaglobulinemia and airway abnormalities, including interstitial lung disease, a condition for which sarcoidosis and Sjogren's disease are among the most common causes.

The advice is contrary to scientific conclusions, as studies have shown that people with autoimmune diseases tolerate vaccines well. For example, the Sjogren's Syndrome News page cites the recommendations of the American agency for disease control and prevention, the CDC, according to which most patients with this diagnosis are recommended not only to get vaccinated but also to get booster vaccines.

At the same time, studies have shown that people with autoimmune diseases are a risk group for several reasons, among others because they can get infected more easily, they often have lung diseases, they usually take immunosuppressive drugs, and their reaction to covid-19 can be exaggerated and misdirected, commonly referred to as a cytokine storm.

The fact is that the vaccine against covid-19 in patients with autoimmune diseases, especially in people with dermatopolymyositis, could cause more pronounced side effects, but according to the conducted studies, the risk of side effects is still much lower than from not vaccinating. The doctors who knew about his underlying diseases should have monitored his condition and, in accordance with the development of knowledge and recommendations, should have updated him with them and recommended vaccination with additional monitoring measures. People with such underlying illnesses require more than "routine procedures".

The fact that there are few of them in the population emphasizes, even more, the need for more detailed and expert care. Finally, even if someone in the system had recognised that his condition was such that vaccination was not recommended for him, they should have officially and in writing informed Matijanić about this and then followed it with special attention and updated the recommendations in accordance with the new findings and changes in Matijanić's condition.

On the contrary, it turned out that Matijanić, who went to nursing vocational school and was not an anti-vaxxer, was simply not adequately "guided" by the system in this regard.

Matijanić should have been kept in the hospital with his diagnoses

Matijanić's partner Andrea Topić says that she took him to the Emergency Infectious Disease Department on August 2 thinking that he would be kept there. It is questionable why they didn't do that when they knew about all the diseases he had, but they just let him go home. Topić believes that it is possible that Matijanić's covid-19 developed even before August 2 as his home antigen test already showed he was positive that morning, and a few days earlier he complained to the immunologist about weakness and malaise.

A person with Matijanić's diagnoses should have been admitted to the hospital if he was confirmed to have covid-19 and if he had symptoms such as elevated temperature, weakness, malaise, wheezing, and cough. On the contrary, in patients suffering from interstitial lung disease, these symptoms – no matter what caused them directly (e.g., a common cold) - are a sign that an acute deterioration (exacerbation) has occurred, and this is always an indication for detailed hospital treatment and, typically, hospitalisation.

The fact that he did not feel any better even when his temperature dropped can only be an argument in favour of the fact that something was not right.

The doctor should have taken his case much more seriously

As was reported by Index, recordings of Matijanić's calls to medical professionals show that none of them took his situation seriously enough.

Among other things, the KBC doctor on duty should have reacted urgently when Matijanić told him that he had not been vaccinated and that he had autoimmune diseases. First, he should have asked in more detail about his autoimmune diseases, because patients suffering from them belong to the risk group when it comes to covid-19. The insistence that “Matijanić was not immunocompromised” because he had only started corticosteroid therapy a day before is a result of confusing the terms “immunocompromised” and “immunosuppressed”.

The doctor who knew Matijanić's condition: He was highly immunocompromised

Matijanić’s immune system was certainly long-term compromised in the sense that it reacted unusually, attacking its own tissue, which is a consequence of autoimmune diseases. Therefore, the doctor on duty should have recommended that he come to the hospital so that his condition could be assessed and monitored. Even though Matijanić stated that he was coughing and had a lot of phlegm, the doctor said that it probably would not be serious since it was omicron, regardless of all Matijanić’s conditions, and without having asked about them in more detail. Indeed, omicron causes severe disease in fewer people in the population than some previous variants of the virus. However, due to his characteristics, Matijanić did not fit into the “general population”, but into a specific group of people in whom even a common cold is a potential trigger for life-threatening conditions (e.g., exacerbation of interstitial lung disease).

There is no doubt that in each of his contacts with the health care system, Matijanić had to be admitted or referred for a detailed diagnostic evaluation and appropriate treatment, ideally at the very beginning, but also in every further stage of the disease.

To date, it has been proven certain: 1) that drugs with an antiviral effect intended to prevent the development of a severe form of the disease and intended specifically for people like Matijanić are effective; 2) that anti-inflammatory drugs such as corticosteroids and some others are reasonably effective in those with advanced disease; 3) that supportive treatment - oxygen therapy (including the most dramatic forms such as mechanical ventilation or ECMO device), anticoagulants and possibly antibiotics where there is a basis for this due to bacterial superinfection, are effective and extremely important and that they help reduce mortality.

Overall, if Matijanić had been referred to the hospital at any stage of his condition and treated as recommended by the guidelines, it can be said with high certainty that he would have survived this covid-19 episode.

Problematic administration of corticosteroids

Due to an autoimmune disease, Matijanić took the corticosteroid Decortin, but only for a brief time. The doctor on duty at KBC Split, whom he called, knew about it but did not react, only stating that he could not be immunocompromised since he had been taking it for such a brief time. As already stated, this was wrong – though Matijanić may not have been immunosuppressed since he did not take therapy that reduces the immune response in people with autoimmune diseases, he was immunocompromised due to his underlying diseases.

When the ambulance finally came for the first time, Matijanić's partner Andrea Topić asked the team if it could be Decortin that made him sick, and the answer was no. Moreover, they also gave him an injection with a strong dose of Solumedrol, which is also a corticosteroid.

What is controversial about that? As previously reported by Index, corticosteroids are used in the treatment of covid-19, but mostly only in an advanced stage, around the 7^th day of severe disease, to reduce the excessive reaction of the immune system, the so-called cytokine storm. Since they are immunosuppressants, they reduce the body's reaction to viruses, so if they are given too early, they can increase the multiplication of the virus. Due to the above, they should only be given to patients with covid-19 in a hospital, under constant medical supervision and with oxygen, and not at home.

In other words, the emergency doctor should have taken Matijanić to the hospital after the first visit if she believed that his disease had progressed so much that he needed corticosteroids. Also, she should have been aware of how serious the situation was because, unlike the doctor on duty from KBC, who did not get enough information, she had access to Matijanić's discharge letter.

At the Emergency Infectious Diseases Department, they did not even ask about underlying diseases

When on August 5 Matijanić called the emergency department at the Infectious Diseases Department, the employee on duty did not even ask him about possible underlying diseases, even though he complained of feeling extreme weakness and severe pain in his muscles and joints. The doctor simply recommended ibuprofen for pain.

They did not call him into the hospital even when it was apparent that he was very sick

Furthermore, when on August 5 Matijanić called a medical worker at the emergency department of Infectious Diseases, after his condition significantly worsened, on the recording of the conversation it can be heard that his breathing was laboured. He also pointed out that he had Sjogren's syndrome and the resulting interstitial lung disease, and that he was so weak that he could not even get up to go to the bathroom.

But that medical worker did not take him seriously enough either, and to all this, she advised him to urinate in a bed pan that one of the household members could empty.

His diagnoses and the fact that his breathing was laboured, that he was so weak that he could not get out of bed should have been sufficient reasons for the employee on duty to seriously advise him to go to the hospital in an emergency or to insist that the ambulance take him as soon as possible.

The emergency left him at home despite the diagnoses

When the ambulance finally arrived, the doctor refused to take Matijanić to the hospital even though he had serious autoimmune diseases in addition to covid-19, which she had to see based on the discharge letter.

There are certain doubts about whether the doctor who came with the ambulance was qualified for the job. It's possible she was hired even though she wasn't qualified because the hospital was understaffed, which is a chronic problem within our healthcare system.

If she was qualified, she should have known that his case needed to be referred to the hospital despite his blood oxygen saturation of 97% (a result that can change dramatically in less than an hour, as it did in the end), low blood pressure, an increased heart rate did not have to look critical. The usual practice of the ambulance is to take a patient with serious underlying diseases in combination with covid-19 and numerous complaints to the hospital to examine his condition in more detail because even minor deviations of key parameters can result in complications.

It was expected that during the summer, during the national holiday, at the height of the heat wave, the healthcare system in touristic Split was overloaded, but this cannot be an excuse for not admitting seriously ill people like Matijanić to the hospital.

In Croatia, there is a lack of necessary medicines for the seriously ill

Finally, as already reported by Index, Matijanić was told on August 2 that there are no drugs to treat the seriously ill, including Remdesivir.

Minister Vili Beroš denied this claim, with the explanation that there is enough Remdesivir or its version Veklury, and that directors must procure them from other hospitals if they lack them, and for specialist doctors to prescribe it to patients. If it is true that Remdesivir was still available on August 2 when Matijanić should have started it, it is still unclear how he never received it.  

Why didn't Matijanić get the medicine? Beroš: There is enough covid medicine in hospitals

But in this context, the Ministry's answer to the question of why there is no Paxlovid, which was approved by the American FDA at the end of 2021, and by the European EMA in January 2022, is also interesting. It is a medicine that, among others, was recently taken by US President Joe Biden and German Minister of Health Karl Lauterbach.

Since it showed excellent results in reducing hospitalisation and mortality by as much as 89%, it may have been able to save Matijanić's life, as well as that of many other patients who have died in recent days.

Many countries procured Paxlovid outside of centralised procurement

Index asked if there was a shortage of medicines in Croatia and received the interpretation from the Ministry that “the procurement of antiviral medicines Remdesivir and Paxlovid through the EC is currently being centralised” and that the department has done everything in this regard on time. However, it is known that the procurement of medicines does not necessarily have to go through the EC. States can procure medicine approved by the European agency EMA by themselves through direct contracts with manufacturers (by the way, Paxlovid was recommended as a medicine for covid-19 in the Ministry's guidelines back in February).

For example, Index received information that, in addition to centralised procurement, Paxlovid has already been procured by Austria, France, Italy, Germany, Belgium, Greece, Portugal, Ireland, and Spain, and that Slovenia will receive it at the end of August. Similarly, Croatia could have also bought the drug directly from the manufacturer, at least in some quantity, to bridge the period until central procurement is done and saved several lives, Matijanić's included.

For more, follow TCN’s dedicated News section.

August 8, 2022 - After the news of the death of index.hr investigative journalist Vladimir Matijanić first became public on Friday, it turned into a scandal, which should have far-reaching consequences.

There are several various investigations into the circumstances of the medical care (or lack thereof) he received prior to his passing, as we already reported. Yesterday, index.hr made public the audio recordings of Matijanić's and his partner's conversations with the emergency services. The conversations are, obviously, in Croatian and they're extremely difficult to listen to, as the medical personnel keeps being dismissive and diminishes the seriousness of the situation, even as his limbs turn blue and it's obvious he's in a dire situation.

Those recordings caused another wave of backlash against all involved, and a famous Croatian journalist Boris Dežulović, known for his honest and often emotional texts, published a FB status (see below)

He says that it took him three days to publish anything on Matijanić's death, because he didn't want to write anything he'd regret afterwards. Then he continues to pose three questions to Vili Beroš:

- if a black limousine with Archbishop Bozanić came to the emergency infectious disease department, and he had all the diagnoses and symptoms like Vlado did, would he also be told that there's no need for hospitalisation?

- if it were Prime minister Plenković's wife who called the ER, just once, not twelve times, with all the diagnoses and symptoms like Vlado's, would they tell her that she didn't need to be admitted to the hospital and that she should pee in a pot?

- if the ER arrived after three days into a home of any HDZ's high-level county official with the same diagnoses and symptoms like Vlado's, would they tell him that they won't take him to a hospital and that he should just have crackers (note: not a precise translation) and leave?

He goes on to say that those are simple, trivial, "yes or no" questions, and that every possible answer should lead to the resignation of the minister, the Prime minister, the entire government, installation of the Day of Defeat and the Homeland Futileness and calling it quits on the entire meaningless Croatian state. 

He finishes his status with a few expletives, whose meanings you'll easily find here.

And the third incident in yesterday's very outrage-driven news cycle came courtesy of a Split physician, Hrvoje Tomasović MD, a former politician with extremely right-wing leanings, who also decided to post on his Facebook, insulting the late reporter Matijanić and suggesting that he (Tomasović himself) would've helped any journalist "he was friendly with" in that situation, if they'd called him. He added that Matijanić was obviously not even able to get help from "his Yugo doctors", so the only thing he had left to do was to call - an ambulance. The outrageous post concludes by stating that it's Matijanić's "quasi-honest opinions" about not needing unfairly privileged treatment that lead to his death, because there was nobody for him to call who could get him the help he needed. Obviously, there's at least one doctor in Croatia who believes and is not afraid to publicly write that the emergency services in Croatia are just for those who don't have friends in high places, and they are themselves to blame when they don't get the help they need.

Tomasović has since deleted the post, but luckily, there are screenshots:

Many professional medical associations, including the association of the hospital doctors, gave statements condemning Tomasović's post and the sentiment it carries.

August 6, 2022 - Index.hr reported yesterday evening that their journalist Vladimir Matijanić passed away.

In their original article, they call him "our best journalist", and his long, successful career confirms that they're probably right. Matijanić was 51, born in Livno and was a dogged investigative journalist. He started his journalistic career in Slobodna Dalmacija, then continued in the weekly Feral Tribune, then again in Slobodna Dalmacija, and in recent years worked on the Index.hr website. He uncovered and reported on numerous scandals in the Croatian politics, which lead to him being sued often by those who felt wronged by his precise reporting. Among his more important journalistic works and discoveries was the falsified master's degree of Ante Đapić at the Faculty of Law in Split.

Also, while working for Index.hr, Matijanić was the first to report on the dubious portions of the doctoral thesis by then-HDZ-candidate in the Split mayoral elections, Vice Mihanović. In a series of texts, Matijanić warned about a series of illogical and bizarre elements of Mihanović's doctoral dissertation which he defended in 2018 at the Faculty of Economics in Osijek. For that work, he received the Marija Jurić Zagorka award for internet journalism, awarded by the Croatian Journalist Society (HND). In their explanation of why he was given the award, HND said: "Matijanić dissected it with journalistic precision, proving that the doctorate was a farse, while the parallel reality of politics and the politically poisoned academic community did everything possible to prove that nothing was wrong with the thesis. Matijanić also relentlessly reported on this, building a story about the doctorate and the politician Mihanović, but also about the Croatian reality. Therefore, his entire work on the 'Mihanović case' is an extremely valuable 'story about Croatia 2021'. His journalistic work is undoubtedly one of the highest journalistic achievements of the past year and deserves the recognition of the profession".

Matijanić also authored the book 'Kerum and the Decline of Split'.

Today, the story of Matijanić's passing got another chapter, as his partner (and another Index.hr journalist) Andrea Topić published on Facebook and on Index a very disturbing account of the last several days of Matijanić's life. She accused the Split health services of numerous oversights, ignoring how serious Vlado's situation has gotten (including refusing to hospitalise him 2 hours before his passing!), the complete lack of Paxlovid in any of the Split hospitals and much more. Vili Beroš, the Minister of Health confirmed to index.hr that he's ordered the inspection, aimed at determining the circumstances of Vladimir Matijanić's passing.