We ended this year by promoting a truly wonderful human story. A six-year-old girl Angela was released home from the Children’s Hospital Zagreb. She was accidentally injured when she fell from a tractor. She came in the Clinic in July 2021. in life threatening condition, with severe damage of six organ systems. A dozen top surgeons from four Zagreb’s clinics performed 16 multiple extremely demanding surgeries. After five months of struggle and rehabilitation, the girl left the hospital on Friday, November 17 as a healthy, mobile and functional child.
In such extremely sensitive stories, from a communication point of view, our priority was to tell the story of the great success of medicine while preserving the privacy of the child and family. In accordance with current laws, we did not emphasize the family name, residential address, contact telephone numbers, names of brother and father or any other detail that would enable the identification of the family. Also, at the press conference we did not talk about the details of the accident, the cost of treatment (all covered!), because the emphasis was on the brilliance of Croatian medicine, the heroism of the girl and the unconditional hope and love of her family.
It was extremely important not to show journalists explicit photos of surgery. However, with the permission of the hospital management, we let the camera crews into the girl’s hospital room to film Angela playing with her dolls on the hospital bed that has been her home for the past five months. All the journalist covered the story with consideration, attention and tenderness to the girl and her mother. They made a warm human story without pathos and pity! Hats off to everyone who helped promote this story!