In the regions of Russia, actions in support of resuscitator from Kaliningrad Elina Sushkevich, accused of killing a baby, are being held. On July 6, pickets were held in Kaliningrad, Petrozavodsk, and Yaroslavl.
Petrozavodsk
In Petrozavodsk, psychiatrist Viktor Lebedev went on a one-person picket. He told «7x7» that he did not agree with the actions of the Investigative Committee, and drew attention to the growing number of criminal cases against doctors in recent years.
— This is wrong to introduce a specific criminal punishment for doctors for medical errors, which is wanted by the Investigative Committee, because it will not help to straighten the health care system in this regard at all. It is necessary to change it in other ways, it is necessary to give it first of all to professionals, but not to people wearing uniforms, — he is convinced.
Lebedevmentioned the criminal case against Alexander Shishlov — a psychiatrist who was convicted of discharge of a patient who later killed a boy. Picket protects other doctors as well:
— Misyurina, Belaya, Sushkevich, Shishlov are only what we see on the surface, they are protected by the community, and there are many doctors and nurses who still have no protection.
Victor Lebedev does not agree that psychiatrists are responsible for the actions of their patients that are already discharged:
— In the end, you can become a prisoner for adequate medical practice. Just because someone didn't like you, someone thought you had made a mistake. And expertise carried out in these cases, as a rule, is greatly doubted in the professional community. There is an opinion that it is always made by order of the Investigative Committee. Or the Investigative Committee takes only what it needs from this expertise, not what is really important.
Late in June, psychiatrist from Astrakhan Alexander Shishlov was sentenced to two years in a penal settlement. He was charged with negligence resulting into the death of a man. Shishlov’s patient Michael Elinskiy, previously suffering from paranoid schizophrenia, killed a child and attacked the police.
Yaroslavl
Activists of the Alliance of Doctors’ branch in Yaroslavl went on one-person pickets to the building of the regional Department of the Investigative Committee, coordinator of Alexei Navalny’s headquarters in Yaroslavl Elena Lekiashvili told «7x7». Radiologist Vladimir Mordvintsev held a poster "Stop persecuting doctors," and neurologist Irina Volkhonova demanded the release of Elina Sushkevich. Several policemen came to the place of the action, they checked the documents of the activists and took pictures of them. The picketers did not explain anything to them.
Vladimir Mordvintsev at the Department of the Investigative Committee in Yaroslavl Oblast. Photo by Daniil Volkhin
Kaliningrad
The leaders of the Alliance of Doctors Anastasia Vasilyeva and Vladimir Sotnikov came to Kaliningrad for a picket. They held posters with the words "A doctor will not save anyone behind bars." Similar actions of doctors and one-person pickets also took place in Voronezh, Penza, Perm, Samara, and other cities. Vasilyeva estimated the interregional action of doctors as "unprecedented". "For the first time in ages, doctors have shown that they are together, that they are ready to protect each other, that they are not afraid," she wrote on Twitter.
The leader of the union of neonatologists of Russia Oleg Ionov spoke out against the actions in support of the colleague: he thinks it will politicize the case. In response, the Alliance of Doctors said that it is not a political organization: "We do not make political demands, but only express solidarity with a doctor, persecuted on absurd charges. And we want to remind that the actions of solidarity with Ivan Golunov helped to save him from the criminal case, although everyone around also said that the rallies only harm."
In the end of June, Elina Sushkevich was sent under house arrest in the criminal case of the death of a premature baby. She was charged with the murder of a helpless child. Investigators believe that the physician has killed the baby in serious condition according to the instruction of the chief physician of maternity hospital Elena Belaya because of the concern about statistics of maternity hospital. Belaya is also under house arrest in a criminal case.
