FIBA to change regulations after Borisa Simanic's case / News - Basketnews.com

A lot of time was lost searching for blood for Borisa Simanic in the Philippines, and the player ultimately lost a kidney during the World Cup. FIBA is about to change regulations to determine competency and have a say in the selection of a medical facility that serves a competition.

Credit: FIBA Credit FIBA

Serbian forward Borisa Simanic suffered a severe injury in the 2023 FIBA World Cup that caused initial panic in the Philippines in the middle of the night. FIBA is going to change regulations to ensure it doesn't happen again.

Borisa Simanic

Position:PFAge:26Height:209 cmWeight:92 kgBirth place:SerbiaProfileNewsStatistics

During the competition, Simanic received a blow in the kidney area from South Sudan's Nuni Omot. He did not finish the game and had to be urgently transported to a local hospital.

The Serbian Basketball Federation (KSS) had to search for blood for the player late at night, which lasted much longer than initially anticipated. In the end, Simanic lost one of his kidneys, and his recovery has lasted ever since.

Surgeon and the president of Red Cross Serbia, Dragan Radovanovic, revealed that FIBA is taking measures to change the regulations to ensure a similar case, where the seemingly questionable competency of a local medical facility causes issues, doesn't happen again.

"I am a member of the FIBA ​​medical commission, and we had a meeting a month ago in Geneva, where one of the topics was health care for major competitions. FIBA ​​doesn't determine who will be at the hospital or the competencies of a hospital in a certain city or country. It is a simple task of the local organizing committee," Radovanovic explained to Sportal.

"When we organize a competition here, we are responsible for our assessment of which hospital will be the main one for the competition. The same applies to the local organizing committee to make an assessment. Now, as we were thinking about making some measurable criteria, which hospital is really competent and what should it have in terms of specialties and what kind of work... I mean, there is a whole instruction of FIBA, which is given to each host country regarding medical questions. Every detail is covered, but not the evaluation of the hospital's competence, because FIBA ​​simply cannot do that," he said.

Episode of the injury:

FIBA doesn't currently have the power or needed infrastructure to determine the competency of local medical institutions. That's the topic that's currently being addressed at FIBA. The organization wants to change the regulations so that they have a say in which medical facility gets chosen.

"You can approximately see how it works, you can see how [well] it's equipped, whether it is well equipped, you can see the working hours, whether the diagnostic service and the emergency service work 24 hours, what their capacities are, but beyond that, you cannot see any substance," the surgeon said.

"You cannot know what kind of transfusion service they have. But that's why we're really thinking about that topic now, and I think that a new instruction from the FIBA ​​Medical Commission will be made to assess the capacity and quality of the hospital. Surely this will be a good lesson. I must also mention that Andreas Zagklis, FIBA ​​General Secretary, came to the hospital as soon as he arrived in Manila. And he really had talks with the hospital administration, that was after the second operation, but still, he demanded high standards for everything. His visit was really significant to create some protective mechanisms for the future of FIBA ​​competitions," Radovanovic concluded.

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