Google Cloud Speech-to-Text API (Chirp) + Gemini 2.5 Flash Non-Thinking. Treat it as a searchable index of what was broadcast, not a quotation record.
00:00:01because the network of
00:00:04idols with Irina Păcurariu.
00:00:11Iraq several times to
00:00:28You could see an explosion, I run.
00:00:30explosions, then I said, "Lord,
00:00:34will happen here?" Cristina helped a lot to
00:00:36understand how I should
00:00:40do my job to get out
00:00:44alive.
00:00:44News
00:00:50reports have brought us over the years dramatic information from
00:00:54the Gulf Wars. Terrifying images, armed soldiers,
00:00:57collapsed buildings, broken destinies. Less seen were
00:01:01those who lived and especially worked against the clock, for
00:01:04the lives of the wounded, a few angels in white robes, doctors
00:01:08from all over the world, who had only one mission, to save
00:01:11as many
00:01:12lives
00:01:16as possible. Chief plastic surgeon Cristina Bejan chose to leave
00:01:20Romania for Iraq, although she knew she was going to a
00:01:23conflict zone, in the middle of a war, the reality was much more
00:01:27tragic than she had imagined before leaving. Before
00:01:30leaving, making this decision, I was a chief
00:01:33plastic surgeon at the Central Military Hospital in
00:01:36Bucharest. I was about 36
00:01:39years old, and it all started in my mind
00:01:43when I tried to get a car on installments and went to the bank, and
00:01:46the bank told me that my salary as a chief doctor was not enough
00:01:50about 100 to buy this car. I was lucky that exactly about
00:01:54two or three months after arriving at the military hospital, there was a
00:01:57request for volunteers for the first
00:02:01military medical mission in Iraq. We were all very
00:02:04confident, maybe a little naive, so
00:02:08we didn't know where we were going, we were going into the unknown. They kept us in a buffer
00:02:11zone in Kuwait for about a week until we had the opening
00:02:15to enter Iraq, and there, when I first put on all
00:02:18my equipment, which weighed about 40 kg, I felt like I was sinking
00:02:22about 10 cm into
00:02:25moment came when they took
00:02:29of course. We went by car from the airport for about
00:02:3230 km, I think, to Abu Ghraib, and there was an
00:02:35explosion, smoke, and bangs, then I said, "Lord, where
00:02:39am I going and what will happen here?"
00:02:43Anyway, the first days were spent adapting, we were
00:02:46in a campus guarded by
00:02:49American Marines. Until then, I thought Rambo was
00:02:53just a movie, but no, Rambo is not a movie, so
00:02:56those soldiers were exactly equipped with vests, helmets, and huge
00:03:00machine guns, with huge
00:03:03bullet reserves with grenades, that's how they walked around all the time. They housed
00:03:07us somewhere in the former prison, in the cells
00:03:11of the former prison, because they said that since it was made of concrete, it was the most solid and most
00:03:14resistant in case of mortar
00:03:17attacks.
00:03:19Life as a war doctor in Iraq profoundly marked her, both personally
00:03:23and professionally. There she
00:03:26understood what it means to be a doctor in a war zone, but also
00:03:30how to use the latest medical technologies
00:03:33that were non-existent at that time in
00:03:35Romania.
00:03:38I worked in a field hospital for
00:03:40traumatology, everything took place in about four
00:03:43tents, but those tents had everything, including in
00:03:47one of them there was a state-of-the-art CT scanner, state-of-the-art
00:03:51radiology, computerized, digitized, so I
00:03:54hadn't seen anything like that in our hospitals yet.
00:03:58Uh, there I learned exactly what
00:04:02anesthesia means, what preparation means, what
00:04:04înseamnă
00:04:07post-operative means,
00:04:09what it means to be a well-trained
00:04:12assistant who can take over some of the doctor's
00:04:16duties. In the medical team, there were two surgeons, there were three
00:04:19surgeons, there was an ENT doctor who was also the team
00:04:23leader, there was a doctor, a general surgeon, and me, who
00:04:26was a plastic surgeon, and I worked in a team with two American
00:04:30doctors, one was a general surgeon, the other was an
00:04:34orthopedist. It wasn't like a hospital in a peaceful
00:04:37zone, there was always the possibility that something
00:04:41would happen, always,
00:04:43you were
00:04:46waiting for the alarm to sound that mortars were
00:04:49coming to the campus and you had to take shelter, then you had to see if
00:04:53anyone was hurt, if they needed us at the hospital. The ones we
00:04:57treated were prisoners. They were, so to speak,
00:05:01rebels and those they caught, they
00:05:04brought them and operated on them, and many
00:05:08times when they woke up from anesthesia, at least one I remember.
00:05:12I remember him waking up from anesthesia and starting to yell, "Give
00:05:15me a rifle to kill the Americans."
00:05:19Although it seems hard to understand, Dr. Cristina Bejan returned to
00:05:24repair faces and destinies.
00:05:27I went with this company again to Iraq. This time I
00:05:31went straight to the Red Zone. I was right
00:05:34next to the hotel, I think it was called
00:05:37the Palestine hotel, from where CNN broadcast all its reports during
00:05:41the conflict. There the
00:05:44situation was even stricter because it was a private
00:05:48security company, various people who arrived in Iraq and had to
00:05:51travel, were escorted by four cars, one in front, two on the
00:05:54side, one in back, for these escort
00:05:58cars, as they say, there was always the danger of stepping on a
00:06:02mortar or an IED commanded by
00:06:05phone. We were a team of
00:06:08four doctors. Now I have to say that in the American
00:06:12army there is something that
00:06:15is called a medic, so who is somewhere between an assistant and
00:06:18a doctor, but he is strictly trained for the
00:06:22army, so only in the army there is this designation of medic who always
00:06:26provides first aid and maintains the life
00:06:29of the wounded in the war
00:06:32conflict. Practically, there I mostly did emergency medicine, although I didn't have
00:06:36this specialty, I learned it on the fly, I had to take
00:06:40cardio-respiratory resuscitation courses. Advanced
00:06:45trauma support courses, there we stayed
00:06:48in a hotel where about 200 people were accommodated, we, the medical team, were not
00:06:51allowed to leave that hotel except in special situations, and
00:06:55we were always accompanied by the same four
00:06:58cars, like that. We had a team of
00:07:01K9s, of dogs
00:07:04who always, when a car came to the gate, would go and
00:07:07sniff if it had a bomb or not.
00:07:09bombă.
00:07:13When you're forced to operate, even though you hear machine gun
00:07:16fire outside, every moment lived is precious,
00:07:20as are the friendships made in conflict
00:07:22zones.
00:07:26I met Cristina in 2006,
00:07:29while I worked
00:07:33as a general practitioner in
00:07:36Iraq. Cristina helped a lot to
00:07:39understand how
00:07:43I should do my job to get out
00:07:46alive from there. I learned a lot in
00:07:50the medical sense of
00:07:53the word, I had never before dealt with
00:07:57patients with
00:08:00malaria,
00:08:02with multiple diseases, who came directly from India to
00:08:06Iraq. We did a kind of screening of the population
00:08:10that came to provide
00:08:12catering, and they came with multiple pathologies that we had
00:08:16to identify, and we were also exposed, of course,
00:08:20to these risks,
00:08:22but with Cristina and the other Romanian doctors who were there, we
00:08:26managed to form a good team and
00:08:28să
00:08:32to escape with our lives and
00:08:35to do something else after the Iraq
00:08:39episode. I found another company that
00:08:42already had Romanian doctors, now it was a different type of job, but it was still
00:08:46general medicine and emergency medicine, and
00:08:49our role was to ensure
00:08:53the welfare and health of those who
00:08:57worked in the American canteen,
00:09:00meaning the maintenance services of the
00:09:03army, canteen, cleaning, and
00:09:07this company only worked with Romanian doctors, so when we met
00:09:11there, there were about four or five
00:09:13Romanian doctors
00:09:15and we worked in Camp Victory,
00:09:19actually Camp Victory, which was the residential area of
00:09:22Saddam Hussein's Baghdad, which now looked pitiful, everything
00:09:26was destroyed, everything was, but
00:09:29it was one of the safest areas in Iraq.
00:09:33Our patients were mostly Indians or Pakistanis or
00:09:37Nepalis. There I also met Dana, a dear
00:09:41friend of mine, and our destiny was intertwined
00:09:44somehow in the following years. I was not
00:09:48very happy with that job,
00:09:51I mean, working with the American army and
00:09:54knowing the conditions that should have been
00:09:58offered to us, this company didn't
00:10:01really, so even though we were doctors, we were treated, how can I say, on the same
00:10:05level as the Indians who
00:10:09cleaned the Americans' toilets and kitchens.
00:10:12That was the first time I told myself that it wasn't worth bothering for what, if I wasn't happy professionally
00:10:16or, how can I say, personally.
00:10:20So, I
00:10:23resigned after four months.
00:10:26zile.
00:10:29After practicing in the most agitated conflict zones, Dr. Cristina
00:10:33Bejan accepted a second challenge, from the Persian
00:10:36Gulf she went to the center of the African
00:10:39continent.
00:10:41As usual, I was lucky. The company that hired me the first time
00:10:45in Iraq just called and told me, "Cristina, we have a position
00:10:49in Liberia, in Monrovia, do you want to
00:10:51go?" And I said, "Yes," without knowing what it was
00:10:55or where Monrovia was. After I said yes, I went and looked at the map and saw
00:10:59it was Africa there,
00:11:01West Africa, somewhere at the bend, and I said, "Oh, okay, I haven't been
00:11:05here before." In Africa, it was a different type of mission.
00:11:09Liberia was coming after a civil war of about 10 years.
00:11:12And our mission there was to
00:11:16rebuild the new Liberian
00:11:17army.
00:11:21The conflict zone in Africa came with new challenges,
00:11:25both professional and personal, also generated by cultural
00:11:29differences.
00:11:33Africa is terribly poor despite all its resources and
00:11:37landscapes. There is no healthcare system there. I was
00:11:40impressed by how sick they were. We
00:11:44had to test for HIV,
00:11:47for hepatitis, for syphilis. Based on
00:11:50my statistics, out of about 5000, I think I consulted about
00:11:545000
00:11:56people, about 10% were
00:11:59positive. Their problem was culture,
00:12:02so if it was found out that someone was positive, it was a
00:12:06shame. Another problem that I found out
00:12:09existed there was malaria, so again
00:12:12it was a global problem of Africa
00:12:15with complications and
00:12:18consequences.
00:12:21And yes, I tried, I tried to help
00:12:25as long as I was there. Liberia was mainly
00:12:28a Christian country, so about 80% were Christians of
00:12:32various factions,
00:12:35let's say. Uh, there weren't many
00:12:38Muslims, there were many people of tribal religions
00:12:42as well, they worked with magic, they worked
00:12:44with, they did distance
00:12:47treatments,
00:12:50well, it was their tradition,
00:12:53but uh,
00:12:55I didn't have any adaptation problems, meaning they
00:12:58accepted you, they tried to learn from
00:13:02you.
00:13:06After a few years of practicing only in war zones, Cristina Bejan
00:13:10decided to retreat to Europe. For a start, she
00:13:13practiced as a specialist doctor in
00:13:15London.
00:13:18The only solution for most Romanians who left for
00:13:22England at that time was to be a resident medical
00:13:25officer, this being a kind
00:13:27of permanent on-call doctor in
00:13:31private hospitals. England is a country with a very
00:13:34well-established medical system, with very well-written
00:13:37rules and procedures and
00:13:41defined, and we had to learn all these things on the
00:13:44fly, there the patient is
00:13:48the boss, it was not harder there, it was much harder than in
00:13:52war zones, but that year also passed. I
00:13:56got a specialist position at Chelsea
00:14:00Hospital. They also have a different system for evaluating doctors,
00:14:03so you are a resident for five
00:14:06years, and then until you become a consultant, it can
00:14:10take a very long time, because becoming a consultant depends first
00:14:13of all on passing some exams that are very difficult, it depends
00:14:17on finding an open position because the number of consultants is
00:14:21if one retires
00:14:25can you take over that consultant position. And between
00:14:28resident and consultant there are various
00:14:31grades of specialist,
00:14:34fellow,
00:14:36well, some
00:14:40intermediate things. The competition in the hospital in the same
00:14:43specialty, plastic
00:14:46which has prospects for very
00:14:49high incomes, was very high,
00:14:52so everyone saw me as a threat because I already
00:14:56had the specialty, so I could anytime, they thought, anytime
00:15:00I could go ahead of them, who didn't have
00:15:03the specialty, who were already final year residents
00:15:07or hadn't yet taken those exams. She also came to
00:15:10England, worked for a period, I stayed
00:15:14there from 2009 until
00:15:182019
00:15:19practic,
00:15:24and I... collaborated again for a period, but not at work,
00:15:28because I worked in a different type of hospital, I
00:15:31worked initially in private hospitals, like
00:15:34her, and then I... I really wanted
00:15:38to try to do medicine the way I
00:15:41wanted, meaning medicine in a
00:15:44hospital, with
00:15:46emergencies.
00:15:48When I finished college, I had wanted to do general
00:15:52surgery, but I didn't succeed in the first two years here, and
00:15:55I was left with this dream that had somehow faded along the way,
00:15:59but in England I resumed it because I realized it
00:16:03was possible, and I worked more in state
00:16:06hospitals. And I stayed in a specialty, neurosurgery, in
00:16:10England, I wanted to stay, I mean I wanted to stay, I lived
00:16:14there, practically, I was an immigrant with papers, for a long
00:16:18period,
00:16:20and again Cristina
00:16:24chose other horizons, she left England
00:16:28again
00:16:31for other projects and we met again when I returned
00:16:34to Romania two years ago. I never
00:16:38lost touch, but
00:16:42somehow we remained very
00:16:45connected both professionally and well,
00:16:49personally.
00:16:50personal.
00:16:54Cristina Bejan's life seems like an adventure book, each
00:16:57chapter has something special, like the one spent on the high
00:17:01seas.
00:17:04After two years, I said, "Enough with England, I have to..."
00:17:16and take care of the staff, and what was it about? It was about
00:17:19some ships that were looking for oil on the seabed, in
00:17:23fact they were doing a kind of echocardiography of the seabed, on that ship
00:17:28mapped, others processed
00:17:31data, others were also sailors who operated the ship
00:17:35and worked on the maintenance of the ship, of course they needed
00:17:38a doctor, because on the high seas 200
00:17:42km, dacă se întâmplă ceva, a întâmplat și nu
00:17:46times there were areas that didn't even
00:17:49have helicopter coverage and then to get to shore in case
00:17:53least 24 hours
00:17:56and in those 24 hours if you had
00:18:00an accident you had to be able to keep the person alive to give
00:18:03them a chance to be
00:18:07hospital, there I learned another thing in this, I
00:18:11learned what prevention means, this job
00:18:15was done, so you had shifts
00:18:18weeks at home or even six weeks I had
00:18:22periods,
00:18:24I usually left on about three trips a
00:18:26an,
00:18:30another chapter in Cristina Bejan's life begins with
00:18:34căsătoria ei și cu dorința de a avea propria. clinică de
00:18:38chirurgie
00:18:38clinic.
00:18:42I had no idea what a business meant, so
00:18:46I went head first, maybe if I had
00:18:492015 when I opened
00:18:53this business, maybe everything would have gone faster and
00:18:55more efficiently, but practically I
00:18:59experimented, I invested money, I lost money, it
00:19:02lasted until 2016 when I managed to attach the aesthetic
00:19:06started to go much better and
00:19:10are getting better and better. I completely gave up going to
00:19:13England somewhere in 2017, around the
00:19:16end of 2017, beginning of 2018, because it was no longer
00:19:20profitable, it had already started to be a
00:19:23waste of time going to England, and then I said, "That's it, I'm staying
00:19:27here and I'm taking on all the responsibilities,
00:19:31everything I know how to do." I started from scratch, because in these
00:19:3410 years new therapies, new products,
00:19:38new devices appeared. I already built a clientele, I built
00:19:41a stable clientele, patients come back gladly, maybe
00:19:45I'm not the best or the
00:19:49smartest aesthetic
00:19:52sense and that matters a lot
00:19:55in aesthetics. A business has to be something you're good at, I mean,
00:19:59I came to the conclusion that if you open a business
00:20:03and if you at some
00:20:06big businesses, small businesses, but a business like mine, so if
00:20:10you, as the owner of that
00:20:13business, are able to handle all the
00:20:17activity that takes place in that business, then
00:20:20open it. If you open a business where you depend on other
00:20:24people, especially for services, for
00:20:27trades, for professions, then don't open it, because
00:20:30you won't be able to control it,
00:20:34you have to do what you know how to do with your own hands. And
00:20:37then if you do what you know how to do with your own hands
00:20:40well, you will surely have success and results.
00:20:44The assistant I have now, Andreea, is an extraordinary
00:20:47girl and everything is connected
00:20:51like this because I started with body contouring and I hired
00:20:54two people who were a bit older, so I went with the idea that young beautiful
00:20:58older women, 45,
00:21:0150 years old, who are
00:21:05whom the clients never complained about. One of
00:21:08these ladies told me at one point that she was talking about
00:21:12student in her first year of nursing
00:21:15bring her here, we'll teach her to do
00:21:19what? She doesn't want to come and work here." And so Andreea
00:21:23scratch and in
00:21:26three years she finished school and now I think she is one of the best
00:21:30pregătite asistente de estetică din din România. Cu
00:21:34Dr. Bejan
00:21:37in the first week of the year, in
00:21:402017, when my mother actually came
00:21:44home and asked me, "Do you want to work with Dr.
00:21:47?" I said , "How? I don't
00:21:50know anything at all, I'm still in school, so
00:21:53absolutely nothing." Practically, the next day I came here to
00:21:57Dr., I had a small interview, she
00:22:00asked, "How is school, do you like
00:22:04it, do you want to be a medical assistant?" I said yes. Dr. is
00:22:08a very sweet,
00:22:11sincere person, she helps
00:22:15everyone, she practically taught
00:22:18me everything. to collect, to do exactly
00:22:22what a medical assistant
00:22:24does.
00:22:27After traveling the world far and wide, after practicing in conflict
00:22:31zones or in London, Cristina Bejan returned to
00:22:34Romania, where she feels
00:22:36at home.
00:22:40Wherever I traveled, I missed my country. Romania is one
00:22:44of the countries where a lot
00:22:47we are.
00:22:50We are the type to place a lot of importance on how
00:22:53we look, how we dress, how we
00:22:56do our makeup, these things don't happen much in England
00:23:00or in Germany or there
00:23:03indeed aesthetics is a luxury thing,
00:23:07I started from the idea of addressing the average woman in Romania,
00:23:10aged somewhere between 35 and 50
00:23:14years old. Professionally, the next step is
00:23:17to perfect myself
00:23:20as much as possible in facial surgery, blepharoplasties, facelifts.
00:24:11Soon you will witness the first show in Romania that will be
00:24:15broadcast directly from the street. Get ready for
00:24:19everything, the
00:24:21good or the bad,
00:24:25we're moving here to the street, everyone
00:24:29to see us,
00:24:31TVR is waiting for you
00:24:34now to be
00:24:37n
00:24:39in front of
00:24:43grace. Time is impatient, and man is
00:24:47too hasty.
00:24:50However, when he wants to rest his soul, he returns
00:24:53to simple things.
00:24:55întoarce,
00:25:00Manuscripts, ethnographic objects,
00:25:03crafts, the works of valuable artists
00:25:07cannot disappear once they become the cultural
00:25:11heritage of our
00:25:12nation.
00:25:16And Romanian traditions gain even more value
00:25:20when they are part of universal
00:25:23heritage.
00:25:28The spiritual perspective offers you joy
00:25:32and
00:25:33reference points.
00:25:37Reports, interviews, documentaries, portraits of
00:25:41ecclesiastical
00:25:41personalities.
00:25:48Shows about religion. On Romanian
00:25:51Television.
00:25:59Captivating stories are the most true. Without special
00:26:03effects, without makeup, without
00:26:06virtual decor, you have an authentic
00:26:09series with strong
00:26:12unforeseen resolutions. For them,
00:26:15destiny is the best screenwriter. They are
00:26:18the stars from Destinies Like in Movies, with
00:26:22Iuliana
00:26:23Marciuc.
00:26:28Beyond the Dniester, the truth is often only whispered.
00:26:32People's lives are severely tested by fear,
00:26:36uncertainty, and compromise. Week
00:26:39after week. Ion Manole opens the files
00:26:42of a region where human rights, freedoms, and
00:26:45safety are severely affected.
00:26:49Transnistria, life in the gray
00:26:51zone.
00:26:58Soul books preserve the symbols and
00:27:01greatness
00:27:03of a nation.
00:27:06From there we draw the strength to move forward
00:27:10and the belief that we can be better.
00:27:12buni.
00:27:16Page by page, we relearn what
00:27:19honor, duty, and respect mean. The
00:27:23King's Hour, the Hour of Rediscovered
00:27:25regăsite.
00:27:29Our energy is part of
00:27:32The joy of being together again week after week
00:27:36means responsibility and love. for that job well
00:27:39done. We have stories, diverse generations, young people and
00:27:43legends. We have good music, smiles and a touch of
00:27:46madness, elegance and positive energy. I am Paul
00:27:50Surugiu Fuego and it's a blessing to have you again
00:27:53next to me, at the galas, my beloved Romania.
00:27:57mea.
00:28:02The rush of every day. Give yourself a
00:28:05break.
00:28:11In the whirlwind of life, make time.
00:28:15Day by day, nourish your soul with a moment of
00:28:18meditation.
00:28:22Day by day with Father Constantin
00:28:24Necula.
00:28:29Wherever life takes them, Romanians want to
00:28:32know, to understand what is happening. I am
00:28:36Angela Avram and I await you at Info Diaspora,
00:28:39the show dedicated to you, the TVR
00:28:42international audience. At Info Diaspora you will always
00:28:45find essential information and advice from the best
00:28:49specialists. Info Diaspora. As many
00:28:53Romanians, so many answers. On TVR
00:28:56International.
00:29:25Welcome back to the evening news, I'm Alina Stancu, let's see the headlines of
00:29:29the edition together. A week is coming. an important one for
00:29:33the designated prime minister. Luca Niculescu plans to present the government program
00:29:36and the list of ministers on Thursday, but so far there is no clear
00:29:40majority solution.
00:29:42Donald Trump wants a new president in Ukraine who can negotiate a peace
00:29:46agreement with Russia. Zelensky, who is also defended by the opposition in
00:29:49Kiev, replied that he would organize elections if Putin stops the attacks
00:29:53in 60 days.
00:29:56The weather changes radically from one hour to another, temperatures drop sharply and in
00:29:59much of the country it will rain heavily. Doctors warn
00:30:03that many people may be affected by depression during
00:30:06this period. Pope Leon will be operated on in the coming
00:30:10days, doctors discovered an early stage nodule in
00:30:14one of his lungs.
00:30:24The President of Ukraine declared that he would organize elections if Russia accepts a
00:30:2860-day ceasefire. The leader from Kiev made the statement in
00:30:32an interview in the American press responding to the American
00:30:34president, who said that it was time for Ukraine to have a
00:30:38new president. Trump blamed Zelensky for the fuel crisis,
00:30:41furious that he did not stop attacking Russian
00:30:45refineries. In the meantime, however, Trump announced on his social
00:30:48network that Russia and Ukraine have reached a so-
00:30:51called energy ceasefire, but he did not
00:30:53give details. If President Trump
00:30:57really.