V’s posthumous victory

V’s father is unknown. V’s mother abandoned him at birth. Around the time he turned five, he was diagnosed with HIV and a mental disability. He would spend his entire life under the auspices of the Romanian state. First, he lived in different orphanages, later in a medical center.

One Friday in February 2004, when V had just turned eighteen, he was locked up in a psychiatric hospital. A drip in his arm forced glucose into his body, as soon after his admission he refused to eat. Despite his being in the hospital for treatment, nobody treated him. The head of the hospital referred to V as a « social case », not a medical one. The staff feared contracting HIV and refused to enter his room. A week later, he died. By the time the European Court of Human Rights found V’s treatment to be in violation of his human rights, he had been dead for over ten years.