Health and Medicine
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Reportedly, three medical professionals in Russia have fallen from hospital windows in the space of a few days, after each complained about unsafe working conditions amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
The rest of this article is behind a paywall. Please sign in or subscribe to access the full content.Local media outlet TVK reported the first incident on April 25, after 47-year-old hospital boss Yelena Nepomnyashchaya fell from the fifth floor of the Krasnoyarsk Regional Hospital for War Veterans. According to The Moscow Times, the accident occurred shortly after Dr Nepomnyashchaya had protested to health officials over plans to repurpose the facility for coronavirus patients, arguing that a lack of protective gear or proper training would put staff at risk. She died from her injuries shortly after the incident.
Around the same time, Dr Natalia Lebedeva plunged to her death from the sixth floor of a Moscow hospital where she was being treated for coronavirus symptoms. The Moscow Times reports that Dr Lebedeva had been blamed by some for the spread of the virus at her clinic at a cosmonaut training facility, with unconfirmed reports suggesting that she took her own life. Officially, the death has been ruled a tragic accident.
Yet another health worker fell from a window this past weekend.
Paramedic Alexander Shulepov is currently in a critical condition after suffering a fractured skull following a fall from the second floor of a hospital in the Voronezh region, where he too was being treated for coronavirus symptoms, reports The Moscow Times.
He and his colleague Alexander Kosyakin had previously posted a video online in which they complained about Shulepov being forced to work despite testing positive for Covid-19. After Mr Kosyakin was questioned by police on suspicion of spreading “fake news” the pair posted a second video in which they retracted their earlier comments.
Police have launched an investigation into the circumstances surrounding this latest accident, though so far no one has been found guilty of any wrongdoing.
