Mina Kostic moved to women's ward at Laza Lazarevic

Singer Mina Kostic has been moved from intensive care to the women’s ward of the “Dr Laza Lazarevic” psychiatric hospital in Belgrade, after the medical team judged her condition to be more stable. It is the latest step in treatment that began at the end of May.

Kostic was admitted on May 31, under police escort. Doctors estimated at the time that her hospital treatment would last around 30 days, due to a difficult psychological state. The move from intensive care to the women’s ward is read as a sign that she is responding better to care.

In the first days of her stay, the singer was under closer supervision, standard practice for admissions in an acute state. Now that her condition has been judged more stable, treatment continues in a setting that gives the patient more calm and space. A flood of unconfirmed claims about her health has appeared in public in recent days, which is precisely why details about the treatment itself have stayed modest and carefully worded.

Why was she moved to another ward?

In psychiatric facilities, a move from intensive care to an open women’s ward usually follows an assessment that the patient is no longer in an acute phase and can continue treatment in a calmer setting. In Kostic’s case, sources close to her care say her condition is more stable than in the first days.

A source close to her lists several overlapping factors behind the admission:

• anxiety and a depressive state that had been worsening in recent months
• separation from her fiance, Mane Curuvija Kasper, who lives in the United States
• exhaustion built up over the past period

Separation from her fiance, who lives abroad, weighed on the singer further, according to the same source, at a time when she was already struggling with anxiety and depression. Her fiance, Mane Curuvija Kasper, told the public that the situation is not as parts of the media had portrayed it.

My Mina is fine, and it is not the way it was presented in the media.

His statement comes after a string of articles that painted the singer’s health in more dramatic terms than, as those closest to her insist, it really is.

What is known about her condition?

According to available information, the treatment is following its planned course, and the estimate of around 30 days remains the framework doctors set at admission. The transfer to the women’s ward does not mean the end of treatment, but a phase in which therapy continues under more stable conditions.

The singer and those closest to her are, for now, holding back from more detailed statements. People around her have said that what she needs most at this moment is calm, and that doctors alone will decide on the course of her treatment. Mina Kostic has been a fixture of the domestic music scene for decades, and over the past days fans have sent her many messages of support on social media.

The “Dr Laza Lazarevic” hospital is one of the best known psychiatric institutions in Serbia and regularly treats patients who need inpatient care. In such facilities, a move from intensive care to the women’s ward most often follows a gradual improvement, but the final assessments remain with the medical team.

The story about Mina Kostic’s health has drawn wide public attention in recent days, but part of that attention has crossed the line of a patient’s privacy. The question is how far it is up to the media, in moments like these, to draw a line and leave room for recovery. How do you view reporting on the health of public figures?