Aleksandr Shulepov, an ambulance doctor in the Voronezh region, south of Moscow, fell out of a hospital window last weekend where he was being treated for the coronavirus.
The ambulance doctor had a video message along with a colleague complained about the lack of personal protective equipment. According to local media, Shulepov said he should continue working after he had already tested positive for corona.
Critical state
Shulepov’s colleague then got the police to visit. He would have warned him not to spread false rumors about corona. What happened next and whether Shulepov jumped out of the window or fell is unclear. He is in a critical condition in the hospital.
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Shulepov isn’t the only doctor who went wrong. In late April, Elena Nepomnyashchaya, chief physician of a hospital for veterans in the Siberian region of Krasnoyarsk, was seriously injured after falling from the window. She died a few days later.
Lack of protective equipment
According to Russian media, she had objected to a plan to treat corona patients in her hospital just before that. She would also have complained about the lack of protective equipment.
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On April 24, Natalya Lebedeva, a hospital doctor at a cosmonaut training center, also died after falling from the window. She was admitted just before with corona symptoms.
According to the authorities, this was a ‘tragic incident’. Russian tabloids suggest that the doctor committed suicide because she was under great pressure.
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How does Russia react?
“The state media reports rather dryly about these three cases,” said RTL News correspondent Eva Hartog. “All three cases are described as a tragic incident. The lack of transparency makes it very difficult to find out exactly what happened in these cases.”
“There is no doubt that healthcare workers are under enormous pressure here. Firstly, because hospitals are inundated with cases and they are totally unprepared. But on top of that, it’s taboo to talk about that. There is a huge cover-up culture, too among hospital executives themselves. There is a lot of pressure to pretend the situation is under control “
Hartog notices that the psychological pressure on health care workers is very high. For example, she had an appointment with a critical ambulance doctor. After talking to the police, the doctor canceled the interview.
In another interview, a senior doctor – who was quarantined in his own hospital – said he found the test system too slow and authorities had failed. “After the conversation, he asked me to be careful with that information.” That could affect my fate, “he said. He didn’t want to make it more concrete.”
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Over 155,000 infections in Russia, 1,451 deaths were reported
The number of new cases of the coronavirus in Russia has increased by 10,102 in the past 24 hours, compared with 10,581 the day before. This brings Russia’s nationwide total to 155,370 infections, the country’s crisis center said this morning.
It also reported 95 new deaths from the virus, bringing the total death toll in Russia to 1,451.
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