On May 6th at 9:20 p.m. on ORF 2
Vienna (OTS) – Christoph Feurstein will present the following contributions in “Thema” on Monday, May 6, 2024, at 9:20 p.m. on ORF 2:
Emergency call: When machines decide – ambulance refused
“How can a computer know how bad a person is?” That’s what the Arandjelovic family asks themselves. On April 7, 2024 they call for rescue. The mother has breast cancer, severe pain and cannot move. The professional rescue service decides that it is not an emergency. It forwards you to the health hotline 1450. After dozens of questions and a long phone call, it also says:
no emergency. This decision was made by a standardized emergency call system. Computer programs evaluate the medical questions asked and recommend what should be done. The family carries the 69-year-old mother into the car and takes her to the hospital themselves. Two days later the woman died of her illness. Pia Bichara and Oliver Rubenthaler ask for “Thema” why emergency services use computer programs.
Expensive treatment fought for – the Georg Polic case
“For the first time we were able to enforce a drug in court,” says lawyer Karin Prutsch. Georg Polic has suffered from spinal muscular atrophy since birth. The responsible hospital company KAGes originally refused to treat the boy from Styria with the expensive drug Spinraza. “Topic” reported. In a sensational trial, the Supreme Court decided that not only ongoing treatment, but also donations-financed injections that have already been given must be paid for by the KAGes. The mother Claudia Polic is relieved: “Georg can finally arrange his life the way he always wanted.” Sonja Hochecker visited the family again.
In heaven with Austria’s most successful hot air balloon pilot
“We feel like we are in control of everything at any given moment and can decide where things are going. But that’s just an illusion,” says hot air balloon pilot Elisabeth Kindermann-Schön. The 36-year-old is the women’s vice world champion and is the only female participant to regularly defeat her male competitors in competitions. In her hometown of Bad Waltersdorf, she organized the Styrian state ballooning championship to commemorate her father, who died ten years ago. She now runs the balloon company he founded together with her ex-husband Thomas Schön. How do you keep a family business together through all the ups and downs? And how did she retain the enthusiasm she felt as a little girl in the basket with her father? Andrea Poschmaier asked the balloonist these questions in the silence above the clouds.