Dr Yelena Nepomnyashchaya Russian top doctor falls from 5th floor in suspicious circumstances while complaining about PPE shortage amid coronavirus.
A top Russian doctor fell from a 5th floor hospital office window while on a conference call with bosses complaining over a shortage of personal protective equipment (PPE) for coronavirus medics. The incident has since raised questions as to how exactly the top physician fell.
Dr Yelena Nepomnyashchaya, 47, a mother of two, is thought to have objected to her hospital in Krasnoyarsk having to take in coronavirus patients because of an ‘acute shortage’ of personal protection equipment for doctors and nurses.
She is now fighting for her life in intensive care after the fifth floor fall as medics are ‘refuse to talk’ about her chances of survival, Russia’s NovayaGazeta reported.
The respected doctor was on a call with Minister of Health for the Krasnoyarsk region Boris Nemik on Saturday at the time of the fall.
Police are investigating the circumstances of the fall.
Reports say she had been told that 80 beds at the Krasnoyarsk Regional Hospital for War Veterans were to be given over for coronavirus patients.
She is thought to have been against the plan because of a shortage of protective equipment for doctors.
The Ministry of Health has since claimed that the hospital was ready to accept COVID-19 patients.
Deputy head of Krasnoyarsk region’s government Aleksey Podkorytov said Dr Nepomnyashchaya’s fall could have an explanation besides those reported by local media.
‘So many things could have happened,’ he said.
‘It could have been because it was spring, the overall stress, something in her family.
‘It’s difficult to say what could have happened.
‘There was nothing extraordinary happening at the time, just a routine conference call with doctors’ reports.’
He added: ‘At the time (of the accident) there were no patients with coronavirus, yet the hospital was on high alert with all necessary equipment in place.
‘She just reported that there were no coronavirus patients.
‘They in fact (have) started to be admitted into the hospital, but only a very few with the lightest form of the virus.’
Krasnoyarsk is capital city of the second largest region in the Russian Federation.
The Krasnoyarsk region more than 4,000 kilometers east of Moscow is among Russia’s 20 most-affected territories, with 527 coronavirus cases and five deaths registered as of Monday the Moscow Times reports.
The ‘incident’ follows other reports that doctors in a number of Russian regions have quit their jobs in protest over a lack of PPE.
An unnamed law enforcement source told Novaya Gazeta newspaper that an inquiry was still ongoing, but preliminary findings showed no signs that a crime was committed.
The incident with Nepomnyashchaya follows a spate of mysterious deaths by falling out of windows among Russian journalists in recent years.
