As Russia’s health system grapples with the COVID-19 pandemic, Natalia Lebedeva, the chief EMS officer at a cosmonaut training facility outside Moscow, tragically lost her life after she fell from the window of a hospital room where she was suffering from symptoms of the virus.
While authorities have ruled her death as an accident, unconfirmed reports have cited her colleagues as suggesting that she may have taken her own life after her employers accused her of allowing the virus to spread among the center’s medical staff. Just a few days prior to Lebedeva's death, Yelena Nepomnyashchaya, the chief medical officer of a Siberian hospital, fell from its fifth-floor after talks with health officials, where she opposed admitting COVID-19 patients due to a lack of protective equipment and trained staff.
Lebedeva’s name features alongside 71 other medical professionals who have died from the virus in Russia so far, on an unofficial list launched by Russian doctors who are mistrustful of official governmental data. On 2 April, the leader of an independent doctor’s union was detained for challenging the government's official coronavirus numbers and dubbing them as lies.
Alexei Kashcheyev, a neurosurgeon, said, “Why should doctors keep a list of their own? Very simple: they don’t trust statistics... They know what [Covid-19] looks like, so they won’t believe what the ministries tell them. They’ll maintain the list themselves.”
Russia confirmed 6,411 new infections of the coronavirus on Tuesday, its highest one-day increase, bringing the country’s official number of cases to 93,558, surpassing China.
Image Source: The Moscow Times
Two Russian Doctors ‘Fall’ From Hospital Windows Within a Week
Natalia Lebedeva was placed in a hospital room with COVID-19 symptoms last week.
April 29, 2020
