Doctor-in-chief of a maternity hospital in Russia, responsible for death of an Uzbek citizen’s child, placed under house arrest

According to the report of centralasian.org, the court in Kaliningrad put the head physician of a maternity hospital Elena Belaya under house arrest. Reportedly, she was accused of abusing power, which resulted in the death of an Uzbek citizen’s baby.

In accordance with the investigation materials, on November 5 of this year, a citizen of Uzbekistan was taken to Kaliningrad maternity hospital in serious condition. The baby boy, who was born prematurely, had respiratory problems. Experts believe that the baby could survive with the timely appointment of “Curosurf” surfactant.

Investigation Department of Kaliningrad region concluded that the former head physician of the maternity hospital Elena Belaya ordered not to prescribe the surfactant to the child. It was noted that one bottle of the drug cost 20,000 rubles.

“She ordered her subordinates to rewrite the history of childbirth. Thus, the medical record was changed as “the child died in the womb”. The baby, born weighing 700 grams, was provided medical care when it was almost certain that saving his life was impossible. He was even given “Curosurf”, but it was late,” Natalya Gatsko, a representative of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation for Kaliningrad region, said.

According to her, “doctor-in-chief instructed the medical staff to take all possible measures to prevent the child from surviving”.

During the investigation, Elena Belaya tried to whitewash her action with the “high cost of the drug”. According to one of the employees of the maternity hospital, despite the prohibition of the head physician, he injected “Curosurf” into the child, but the drug did not produce the expected result. Later, Dr. Belaya ordered to indicate in the documents that the child of an Uzbek citizen was born dead with the purpose of “not spoiling the statistics”.

A criminal case has been initiated against Elena Belaya under the article 286 (“Abuse of official authority entailing grave consequences”) of the Criminal Code of the RF. On November 22, it became known that the court of Kaliningrad released Elena Belaya under house arrest.