The President of the Republic, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, assured this Saturday that he did not interfere in the decision of the case of the Brazilian twins operated on at the Santa Maria Hospital in Lisbon and threatens to go to court if anyone appears who says otherwise.
“If someone appears [a acusar de favorecimento]I will go to court to compare my truth with the truth of another person,” the head of state said.
In statements to journalists, the President of the Republic not only denied the “wedge” regarding the two twins, but also emphasized the fact that no one appears in the report published this Friday by TVI, which claims to have contacted him.
“I didn’t do it. If I did, I would have said so. Looking at the report, no one says that I said or that they spoke to me,” he emphasized.
Maite and Lorena, Brazilian girls suffering from spinal muscular atrophy, a rare fatal disease in infants, needed medicine costing two million euros. [para cada uma] so they can survive.
In a post-camera audio recording published in a TVI report, the babies’ mother, Daniela Martins, admits that after a doctor told her the twins would not be able to receive the million-dollar treatment, she used her contacts to overturn the decision.
“I went there and met the doctor and she told me it wouldn’t work. [para fazer o tratamento], so we used our contacts. I met the president’s daughter-in-law [da República]who knew the Minister of Health who sent the email to the hospital…”, Daniela told TVI in a statement that could mean “off the record”, without the protagonist knowing that she was being recorded.
According to TVI, the case, which began in 2019, created a conflict between neuropediatricians and the board of directors of Santa Maria, as doctors did not want to accept twins who had already been treated in Brazil.
In an interview with the TV channel, the coordinator of the hospital’s neuropediatric department said that what was happening in the “corridors” at that time was that the girls were going for treatment under the influence of the president of the republic.
Ana Paula Martins, president of Centro Hospitalar Lisboa Norte, also said that she knew it was being talked about, but she had “minimal evidence” about it.
According to TVI, the hospital has no explanation as to why the twins showed up for their already scheduled appointment. The registration dossier has disappeared, so the hospital is going to conduct an audit.
Daniela, who has dual citizenship, also asked for dual citizenship for her daughters before coming to Portugal for treatment.
According to TVI, although the President of the Republic does not remember having any conversation with his son Nuno Rebelo de Souza about the case of twins, he himself admitted it in emails exchanged between the coordinator of the neuropediatrics department. in November 2019.
The President of the Republic assured that he was not following this matter and emphasized: “So far, not a single person has appeared and said that I approached them with a request about this.”