August 2026 will remain a month of pain for many Albanian families. Among the fires, accidents and other tragedies, a serious event also shocked a family in Pogradec, where a 37-year-old pregnant woman lost her life during transport to Tirana, while waiting to give birth to her child.
The mother was in her seventh month of pregnancy and, according to family members, the pregnancy had been continuously monitored through medical tests and checkups, which had so far resulted normal.
On the show "With an Open Heart", by author and moderator Evis Ahmeti, the 37-year-old's sister painfully recounted the last hours of her life and the allegations about how the situation was managed in the hospital.
"I have no words to describe the tragedy. The situation should have been prevented. From the moment I took her to the maternity ward, for an operation that could have been done very quickly, the sister and the child would have been alive. The sister called me at 12:00. I went very quickly because we live nearby. There was a doctor on duty at the hospital. Her blood pressure was continuously decreasing. I remember this very well. The sister had very severe abdominal pain, so she called me. She was 7 months old, she was being followed up with tests and check-ups. Everything turned out fine," the sister confessed.
According to her testimony, the doctor at the hospital considered the situation serious and requested urgent intervention.
"The doctor we sent him to was very concerned. She said: We need an operating room, we need a surgeon, we need a helicopter," she said.
The 37-year-old's sister said she was then told that the patient needed to be urgently flown to Tirana. She heard that an order for transport was needed and tried to contact the hospital director.
"I heard them saying someone should give the order and I said: who should give the order, the director? Because I had his number and I said I would call him. But one of those who were there told me: 'Leave it, we've fixed it,'" she confessed.
According to her, instead of immediately heading to Tirana, her sister went to another hospital room, where she was given serums and blood.
One of the most painful moments of the story is when the 37-year-old, although in serious condition, was still conscious and worried about the child she was carrying in her womb.
"The sister was conscious, even asking the nurses if the baby would survive," her sister said.
According to the story, the family members arrived at the hospital around noon, while in the early hours of the night the situation worsened.
"We went to the hospital at 12:00 and by 2:00 am we were in intensive care," she said.
The 37-year-old's sister raises questions about the delay in the intervention and transport to Tirana, linking the loss of her life to the lack of an operating room. "My sister ran away to an operating room. At the entrance to Elbasan, there was a moment when she was no longer responding. The nurse told the driver to urgently return to Elbasan. But I think she died in the ambulance," the sister confessed.
The family is now seeking to clarify all the circumstances of the incident and determine whether delays in intervention or transportation contributed to the tragic fate of the 37-year-old and her baby.
