Emina Šalaka died on Thursday, April 1st, 2021. at KCUS in the evening due to the consequences of the coronavirus. Her daughter, Almira Šalaka - Avdić, reveals in a confession for "Avaz" that her death was preceded by seven days of agony, humiliation, ridicule and ignorance by the KCUS staff.

Ridicule and provocations

- On Thursday, March 25th, my mother was admitted to KCUS. It took me a good few hours to find out which ward she was hospitalized in. I even called the office of the director of KCUS, Sebija Izetbegović, to try to reach my mother, to know where she was placed and what was happening to her, so they called, but not to say in which department my mother was placed, but to tell me which number I can call and find this out. And this is where our agony of calling them starts. In one day, from 11:30 AM to 1 PM, I called that number 260 times. Nobody answered - Šalaka-Avdić begins her confession.

She points out that even if they managed to get someone at KCUS, they would most often not get information about where and in what condition her mother was, and they were even exposed to open ridicule and provocations.

- My son Dino works at the General Hospital in Dubrovnik and his wife runs the entire COVID department at the Dubrovnik Hospital, so he is a medically educated person. My mother died Thursday, at 8:45 PM. At 7:10 PM that day, my son called from the hospital, he was on duty, His call was answered by a doctor who did not introduce herself, she talked to him very ugly. She said that if he wanted information about my mother that he had to send an email to be granted information about her medical records. He asked how high CO2 is, because if it is high, it means that his grandmother is very bad. She told him "what does that mean to you", I can't tell you on the phone. To this my son said "my uncle will come there, so tell him personally". She started making fun of him with the words "what does dundo mean (uncle, Op. Cit.), what does „osobno“ (personal) mean for you, learn to talk" and hung up the phone – this is how our interlocutor describes her son's conversations with the doctor.

First waiver of compensation, then medicine

Šalaka-Avdic states that they had to wait more than a day for the approval of the medicine her mother needed.

- We waited 30 hours for the mother to be approved a medicine that costs 1,350 marks. We would buy twenty of them, we stressed to them that we had money, but even when we got approval, the doctor waited for my brother to come and sign to waive the fee. Of course he gave up, but can you imagine what they do and what their priority is, while the woman is dying - says Šalaka-Avdić through tears.

Lawsuit against Izetbegović

Because of everything, she says, she decided to turn to Sebija Izetbegović to complain about her experience, and after she did not contact her, she filed a complaint against the director of KCUS.

- After my mother's death, I called Sebija Izetbegović thirty times, she never answered. My lawyer sent the lawsuit to Ms. Izetbegović via e-mail on Thursday at 8:30 AM and we will go with the lawsuit. Not for compensation, not for the death of the mother or similar, but only so that some other families do not go through what we went through for seven days - says in her confession the shaken Almira Šalaka-Avdić.