Romanian Teen Critical After Festival Illness, Treated with ECMO

An 18‑year‑old girl from Craiova fell seriously ill after attending a seaside festival where a friend had meningitis. She developed bronchopneumonia and cardiac‑respiratory complications. Romanian authorities transferred her by a Ministry of Internal Affairs Black Hawk helicopter to the Floreasca Emergency Clinical Hospital in Bucharest, where a team of specialists placed her on extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) – the first such use in Romania. Doctors from the hospital stabilized her condition, allowing safe transport back to Craiova for further care.

The case highlights the rapid response of Romanian medical services and marks a milestone in the country’s critical‑care capabilities.