19‑year‑old cannot walk after caesarean in Stip; health minister orders inspection and expert review

A 19-year-old woman from the village of Banica remains unable to walk after a caesarean section performed at Stip General Hospital, and Minister of Health Sasho Klekovski has ordered an extraordinary inspection by the health inspectorate and a specialist review of the case.

Klekovski said the State Health and Sanitary Inspectorate will carry out an out‑of‑schedule inspection in all three hospitals where Stanka Mihajlova was treated. He also announced that he will order an expert review involving specialists in gynecology, neurology and urology to establish whether an error during the caesarean led to the severe complication.

Mihajlova is the mother of two children — one is one month old and the other is 3.5 years. According to the medical records the family provided, this was her second caesarean. The director of the hospital in Strumica, Goce Hristov, however told reporters he believed it was her third caesarean; the medical documents available to the family and reviewed by journalists do not support that claim.

The discharge letter from Stip General Hospital states that Mihajlova was released after delivery on 26 June 2026 and described as "in good general condition," but the family says that is not what happened in reality. Relatives report she was carried out under the arm because she could not walk; once home her condition worsened and she soon ended up confined to a wheelchair.

Her deterioration had already been recorded in hospital notes: on 4 July 2026 an ambulance from Strumica brought Mihajlova to the Neurology Clinic at the Clinical Center "Mother Teresa" in Skopje. She was transferred after a delivery performed under spinal anesthesia and complained of weakness in both legs and urinary retention. A magnetic resonance imaging scan of the spine found longitudinal myelopathic changes at the level of Th9–Th11. She was hospitalized in the neurology clinic for more than 20 days.

Vladko Zahariev, director of Stip General Hospital, said he had not convened a hospital quality commission in more than a month as required by law and that he first learned about the case from journalists. He told reporters: "The first thing the family should do is file a complaint on the first working day so that it can be determined whether the allegations are founded or not. This is the first time I'm hearing about this from you and I would not like to comment on the truthfulness, nor can I accuse anyone in this way until all the facts are seen. My suggestion is to propose to the family — I see you have communication — to copy all the documentation they have and submit it to us. We will review all the facts and the family and you will receive an answer."

Outside the hospital in Strumica, Mihajlova's father‑in‑law, Velibran Stojanov, went live on Facebook to appeal to Minister Klekovski for help, saying his daughter‑in‑law — with two small children at home — cannot walk after the caesarean. In his video he alleged that a doctor had pointed a finger at the anesthesia during the operation as the possible cause of the complication.

Photo: press material from the event