Two employees of the Craiova Regional Center of Blood Transfusion were arrested for 24 hours, on Wednesday, on charges of blood trafficking.

One of them, who was a nurse at the transfusion center, was caught red-handed on Wednesday while receiving RON 200 from an undercover officer of the General Anticorruption Department (DGA) for two units of blood. The officer told the nurse that he needed the blood for a patient that was to have surgery.

In fact, in March this year, the nurse and a registrar of the transfusion center have repeatedly received money from DGA officers for units of blood, according to a statement from DGA.

The two were taken in for questioning on Wednesday, and were later arrested for 24 hours. They could spend 30 days in prison for bribery if the court will approve the prosecutors’ request in this sense.

The prosecutors also took several documents from the transfusion center.

In February this year, two people died at the Filantropia Hospital in Craiova and four others had side effects after blood transfusions.

Irina Popescu, irina.popescu@romania-insider.com

(Photo source: Directia Generala Anticoruptie on Facebook)