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SAHLGRENSKA

Stolen Milles statue found in woods

A bronze statue by Swedish sculptor Carl Milles, which was stolen from outside Gothenburg's Sahlgrenska University Hospital five years ago, has been found in the woods outside nearby Kungsbacka.

The statue, valued at 750,000 kronor ($99,550), was found on April 28th, according to police.

“Two individuals found the statue, standing upright in the forest,” said Kungsbacka police inspector Ingemar Hilmersson.

The 88-centimetre statue, titled “Genius,” depicts a lyre-playing angel, the report said. The stolen sculpture is now in the possession of the police.

The piece of art was donated by a private individual to Sahlgrenska Hospital in 1959. Until the fall of 2005, it stood at Sahlgrenska’s main entrance.

The statue was sculpted between 1932 and 1940 as a tribute to playwright August Strindberg. Since 2005, police in Västra Götaland county have unsuccessfully attempted to find the sculpture, the Norra Halland newspaper reported.

“It was during a major renovation of the main entrance in the fall of 2005 when the sculpture disappeared,” Tibor Szabor, head investigator of the Gothenburg city police team, told Norra Halland. “They discovered that it was gone in October, but they were not sure if it was stolen or if someone removed it. Only in December did they file a report.”

Fears that the sculpture would have melted down can now be dismissed, the report said.

“However, we have no suspects for the theft, nor do we suspect the few local residents,” Bo Månsson of the Kungsbacka police told Norra Halland.

Kungsbacka police did not disclose how it found the sculpture.

As recently as last winter, another stolen Milles sculpture was found in connection with the discovery of the stolen “Arbeit macht frei” sign at the entrance of the Auschwitz concentration camp, the report said.

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HEALTH

Pregnant woman died in overcrowded hospital

A Swedish hospital pressured by a lack of beds and staff coupled with a winter increase in patients has reported itself to the healthcare watchdog after a pregnant woman died in its emergency room.

Pregnant woman died in overcrowded hospital
File photo of a pregnant woman not connected to the story. Photo: Hasse Holmberg/TT

The woman complained of headache and vomiting when she visited Mölndal Hospital in western Sweden in December, reports broadcaster SVT. It was decided to let her undergo a brain scan, but because of a lack of beds in the neurology ward she had to stay in the emergency room overnight.

During the night her condition deteriorated. She was taken to the neurology ward for emergency surgery, but her life could not be saved. The hospital filed a so-called 'Lex Maria' report to the healthcare watchdog, the Health and Social Care Inspectorate, suggesting overcrowding may have been to blame.

“Inadequate level of care, possible shortcomings in the transmission of information and delayed transport could be a contributory factor to the tragic course of events,” SVT, which does not state how far ahead the woman was in her pregnancy, quoted it as saying.

The hospital does not wish to comment during the ongoing investigation, but several staff members have voiced concern over a lack of beds in non-emergency departments at the Sahlgrenska University Hospital, of which Mölndal Hospital is part.

“Patients who really need care in the other wards end up staying in the emergency room. The staff then have to try to care for them there, while caring for a continuous stream of new patients,” Karin Frank, the healthcare union representative at Mölndal Hospital, told SVT.

The Local has previously reported on other incidents of overcrowding at Swedish hospitals. In December, three families from Uppland county had to travel to Finland to give birth because there was no room for them and their specific needs in the neonatal unit of Uppsala University Hospital.

Last year a baby died when a heavily pregnant woman was turned away from an overcrowded hospital in the south of the country, while in a high-profile case in 2014, a Swedish man had to help his fiancée give birth to their baby in the back of a taxi because the family was turned away by a midwife, who said there wasn't a hospital bed available for them in all of Stockholm.