DARKO MLADIĆ: INFECTION HAS SPREADED, DOCTORS ARE WORRIED

BELGRADE, MARCH 22 /SRNA/ - The decubitus ulcer infection of the former commander of the Republika Srpska Army’s Main Staff, General Ratko Mladić, has spread, is not under control and Serbian doctors are worried about the future, the general's son Darko Mladić told SRNA.

"The decubitus has spread a lot. We found out later. We saw that he had a fall. That is now being resolved. We hope it will work, but it is very inconvenient," said Darko Mladić. He said that General Mladić needed rehabilitation after previous health complications and that he would not be in this situation now if he had gotten back on his feet. "The general should have been treated in better conditions a long time ago. He has been in their hospital since April last year, in the prison hospital, and where he is, he cannot get those appropriate conditions. They don't have the capacity for that," Mladić said. He stated that his father had previously had a problem with decubitis, but it was cured. "This is the second time he has been in such a situation. They then proposed amputation of his leg as an option, which he refused, so it was repaired and calm for a while, but now the infection has returned and spread," said Darko Mladić. He emphasized that the entire team around the general monitors his condition to the extent of the information he gets. "Once a month they give us some kind of reports that are not detailed enough. We never get, for example, laboratory analyses, but only some summary reports from which we draw conclusions and try to get additional information from them," said Mladić. Answering the question whether General Mladić is communicative, he said that his father has periods when he is fine and periods when he cannot speak, and that he is currently in a phase where he speaks very little. Darko Mladić stated that General Mladić’s blood pressure is currently under control and is not a threatening factor. "He suffers from blood pressure and diabetes, the heart and kidneys issues. That combination is inconvenient because when you treat one, the other suffers and vice versa. They caused that problem with his kidneys last year with those strong diuretics, by not hydrating him, and now the situation has worsened to the point where new problems are occurring...decubitus ulcer infection and so on," said Mladić. According to him, General Mladić should have been in better conditions a long time ago. "Where he is, he cannot get those conditions," concluded Darko Mladić.