Girl's riding accident

Mother forced to wait for hours and fear for her child

After falling from a horse (symbolic image), it took a long time for the girl to be taken to the right hospital. Despite wearing a helmet, the ten-year-old still had no memory of the fall a week later.(Bild: Krone KREATIV/P. Huber Wolfgang Spitzbart zVg Privat)

In the "wrong" hospital? Since New Year's Day, residents of the Waldviertel region have had to endure hours of waiting to be transferred from one hospital to another – as was the case for the ten-year-old victim of a riding accident, whose mother feared for her life due to a head injury.

Some of the reported cases of patient transport from the Waldviertel region resemble horror stories, even if they were not life-threatening. For example, a mother (44) describes a supposedly harmless riding accident involving her ten-year-old daughter in Langegg in the district of Gmünd (Lower Austria): with no external signs of injury on her body or helmet, she drove to the nearest hospital in Gmünd "just to be on the safe side" to have the case investigated.

Although there had been no signs of it beforehand, the little girl suddenly kept repeating the same question on the way there: "Why does my shoulder hurt?" She was no longer able to answer questions coherently – and the ten-year-old could not remember the fall either. At 5 p.m., the mother arrived at the hospital with the girl.

After falling from a horse (symbolic image), it took a long time for the girl to get to the right hospital. Despite wearing a helmet, the ten-year-old still had no memory of the fall a week later.(Bild: Krone KREATIV/P. Huber Wolfgang Spitzbart zVg Privat)

Long wait for transport
An X-ray was taken quickly, and the hospital called the Johanniter, who since the turn of the year have been exclusively responsible for patient transport between hospitals in the state (excluding the thermal region), to transport her to the Zwettl clinic. This marked the beginning of an anxious wait for mother and daughter – because it was almost three hours later, at 8:10 p.m., before the young patient was able to "check in" at Zwettl. Fortunately, the fears of a brain hemorrhage were not confirmed.

The ten-year-old girl was wearing this helmet when she fell from her horse.(Bild: zVg/privat )

But even a week later, the ten-year-old still cannot remember the fall, says her mother. The girl is also unable to concentrate on tasks for longer than 15 minutes. 

Hospital teams are not to blame
The mood in the Waldviertel region is heated. Many other cases of hours of waiting for so-called secondary transport are doing the rounds. This is often followed by praise for the hospital teams, who are completely blameless in the current predicament.

The State Health Agency (LGA) explains that the Johanniter were ultimately the only bidders for the secondary transport tender in the Waldviertel region and were awarded the contract. Following the "Krone" reports, both the LGA and Johanniter announced immediate improvements: more cars are to be deployed in the Waldviertel region, and one of them will be stationed at a Waldviertel clinic during the day. Currently, cars are dispatched from the base in Spillern near Stockerau, which is closest to the Waldviertel region.