third Russian doctor has taken a plunge from a hospital window amid complaints about mounting pressures involved in treating coronavirus patients, according to a report.
Dr. Alexander Shulepov, 37, suffered critical head injuries after appearing in a video in which he claimed he was ordered to work despite testing positive for the deadly disease, East2West reported.
Shulepov and his colleagues also warned about the shortages of personal protective equipment in the southwestern city of Voronezh, according to the news outlet.
Lying in a hospital bed, Shulepov later appeared in another video in which he retracted his allegations – though there were suspicions that he was forced to make his statement.
The doctor was gravely injured Saturday, when he plummeted from a second-floor window while being treated at Novousmanskaya district hospital, the news site reported.
Shulepov had been filmed with Alexander Kosyakin, a paramedic who had been called by police under suspicion of spreading misinformation after complaining about PPE shortages.
“Ambulance doctor Alexander Shulepov is next to me, he is just confirmed COVID-19,” Kosyakin says in the video. “The chief doctor is forcing us to work. What do we do in this situation?
“We are not leaving the shift… myself and Alexander has been working together for a month. This is the situation. Everyone says it’s fake (but) these are real facts for you,” he continues.
In a subsequent video, Shulepov says his condition improved.
“I have a runny nose, otherwise all is well,” he said, adding that in the earlier video “we were high on emotions.”
The hospital’s chief doctor, Igor Potanin, has refused to comment.
In another case, coronavirus-stricken Dr. Natalya Lebedeva, 48, fell to her death from the sixth floor of a Moscow hospital after co-workers said she was unfairly blamed for the spread of the virus at her clinic in Star City, the training center for cosmonauts.
And Dr. Yelena Nepomnyashchaya, 47, suffered fatal injuries after falling from a window at her Krasnoyarsk hospital after colleagues said she had complained about an “acute shortage” of PPE.
Third Russian doctor plunges from hospital window amid coronavirus outbreak
