While Romania’s Prime Minister Victor Ponta chose to go to Turkey to have his knee repaired, Dutch ambassador Matthijs van Bonzel’s wife had an orthopedic surgery at the University Emergency Hospital in Bucharest, according to Romanian media.

Matthijs van Bonzel, Netherland’s ambassador to Romania, posted photos of his wife after the foot surgery she had in Bucharest on Tuesday, June 16, thanking the Romanian surgeon who operated on her. Cristina Van Bonzel had also had a surgery last year at the same hospital in Bucharest, according to Mediafax.

The news might have passed unnoticed, hadn’t it been for Prime Minister Victor Ponta’s decision to go to Turkey for a knee surgery. Ponta had his knee operated on Monday at the Medipol University Hospital in Istanbul.

Ponta wrote on his Facebook page that the intervention was more complicated than expected, but that he expected to recover fully by December. “Of course I fully trust Romanian surgeons, but here I have something that was impossible to find at home: peace and rest,” Ponta wrote to motivate his decision to go to Turkey.

“I want to reassure those who enjoy my suffering that I will return healthier and stronger,” Ponta added in his Facebook post.

Ion Bogdan Codorean, the Romanian physician who examined Ponta and recommended him the surgery said that the Prime Minister initially wanted to have the surgery in Romania but then changed his mind, not because he didn’t trust the Romanian doctors, but because he wished to escape the media pressure. He added that there were only a few surgeons in Romania who could perform such an operation, including him, according to Romanian news portal Gandul.info.

Codorean also said that Ponta would probably need three weeks of rest. He added that he advised Ponta not to return to work in these three weeks.

Other Romanian high officials, including former President Traian Basescu and former Prime Ministers Adrian Nastase and Calin Popescu Tariceanu, also went abroad when they needed surgery.

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editor@romania-insider.com