Serbia: ERRC calls for investigation into alleged medical neglect of Romani mother resulting in stillbirth
09 September 2025
The ERRC has called for an urgent inquiry into allegations of criminal neglect by hospital staff made by Goran Marković, the father of Bojana Marković, following the tragic loss of her baby in the maternity ward of the Leskovac General Hospital on the evening of the 31 August 2025.
Despite 24-year-old Bojana Marković’s repeated complaints of intense pain she was not taken to the delivery room. When she first experienced labour pains, she reportedly received an injection to induce dilation. A CTG (foetal heart monitoring) scan taken at 17:30 showed the baby was still alive. Despite being in active labour and in extreme agony, her complaints of severe pain were reportedly ignored, and following a second CTG scan taken approximately two hours later, staff informed Bojana’s father and her husband that the baby had died.
According to the distraught father "I talked to the principal and the deputy director, and he told me that the placenta allegedly ruptured and the baby suffocated. And we all know that when the placenta ruptures, there must be blood. And even if that's true, they must remove the dead baby as soon as possible so as not to endanger the mother's life."
As reported in the media, no cesarean section was performed; instead, the mother, Bojana Marković was left to deliver her stillborn infant naturally. Reportedly, Bojana suffered serious injuries during delivery and experienced heavy bleeding, reportedly requiring two bags of plasma. Her father filed a police report, and investigators visited the hospital to take statements.
As reported in Blic, Bojana Marković, who was temporarily living in Germany, was one of the few who decided not to give birth in Germany, but in her own country, in Leskovac. According to her father Goran Marković, that decision turned out to be fatal. As reported, the “To make the situation even sadder, Markovic's baby would have been the only one born yesterday. On the city's website, where the number of newborn babies is published, today there is just one line.”
This tragic event occurred in the new maternity ward of the renovated block of the Leskovac hospital, with the most modern equipment, proudly presented to the media by its director, Nebojša Dimitrijević. In response to questions from Blic, the hospital stated that a health inspection is underway, and that an autopsy has been ordered to determine the cause of death.
The ERRC has called for a just and transparent resolution of this case. In light of the history of neglectful treatment of Romani women in maternity facilities in Serbia, including the case of the medical negligence and obstetric violence perpetrated against Marica Mihajlović in Sremska Mitrovica General Hospital in 2024, the ERRC has requested that the authorities consider racial discrimination as a possible factor in the circumstances which resulted in such a tragic outcome.
The text of the ERRC letter is available in English and Serbian.
