The number of dead and those accused in the case of barium poisoning of patients in the St. Petersburg medical center has almost equaled. At least seven people were buried by relatives in December and January. At least 23 more Petersburgers were seriously poisoned, but survived. Five employees of the City Consultative and Diagnostic Center No. 1 (CDC), where people underwent a procedure that became fatal for them — an X-ray of the digestive tract with contrast (using barium sulfate), were charged by the investigation. One of the defendants in the case, the head nurse of the center, 58-year-old Marina Efremova, immediately after talking with investigators, decided to take her own life.
“Lyosha, what did you drink?”
“I don’t know how to continue to live. — There are no tears in the eyes or in the voice of Alexandra Tsareva. At the end of January, she buried her husband, 42-year-old Alexei Tsarev. Left alone with four children, the youngest daughter is 4 years old. — The elders seem to understand what happened, but at the same time they cannot accept it. And little Nastya is waiting for her dad every day.
Alexei, according to his wife, was not ill with anything serious. He suffered from heartburn. In order to get rid of it, he turned to a gastroenterologist at CDC No. 1. On January 25, he was supposed to do a control fibrogastroduodenoscopy (FGDS) of the stomach, and on the 26th he had to see a doctor. But there were no free places for recording at the FGDS, and Tsarev was offered to go for an x-ray with contrast: they say, it’s no worse, even more informative.
“After the x-ray, my husband returned home barely alive,” says Alexandra. — I asked him from the threshold: Lyosha, what did you drink? What did they give you? He said that he literally drank a couple of sips of a mixture of barium, where they added citric acid and soda, according to the doctors, «to expand the stomach.»
My husband immediately felt dizzy, darkened in his eyes. He reported this to the medical staff. They answered him: «It's okay, keep drinking.»
Husband drank. Carried out the procedure. He went to pay for it, then waited another hour for the result. He got worse and worse. The husband complained to the doctors. But they sent him home: «Lie down, everything will be fine.»
However, nothing normal happened to Alexei: he could neither stand up nor sit down, his head was spinning, he constantly felt sick and vomited blood. When her husband's face and arms were paralyzed, Alexandra, who had called 03 for several hours, nevertheless convinced the doctors to record the call. At eight in the evening, an ambulance took Alexei to the Botkin hospital, where he died on the night of January 26.
Alexandra works as a nurse in a kindergarten. She has no relatives who could help her.
— I don't know how to live now. I can't feed four children alone on a nurse's salary.
After the death of the breadwinner, no one provided any assistance to the Tsarev family. They didn't even apologize or express their condolences. The only thing the city offered to a widowed mother of many children was a free consultation with a psychologist.
“That doesn’t happen”
Tsarev is one of three patients whose sudden deaths on January 25-27 attracted the attention of the investigating authorities. In just three days with the same signs of severe poisoning with an unknown substance in the hospital. Botkin delivered six. In addition to Alexei, two elderly women died in the hospital. The number of injured, but surviving, by January 28 reached 23 people. All of them had done X-rays of the gastrointestinal tract the day before with contrast using barium sulfate at CDC No. 1.
63-year-old Tatyana Eremina also died on January 25, but at home. In the morning she went for x-rays with contrast.
“Mom didn’t feel a special need for this examination: she had a stomach ulcer at the healing stage, but they gave a referral at the clinic,” says her son, Dmitry Eremin. “In the afternoon I called her on another occasion and heard a voice like I've never heard before. He asked, «What happened?» “Bad after the procedure,” she whispered. Late in the evening I returned from work, my mother was sleeping, did not disturb. In the morning I went to her: she was lying in the same position, only she was not breathing, she had died. Called «112». The doctors arrived. I explained that my mother went to the clinic, did an x-ray. They immediately cut it off: «That doesn't happen, it's impossible.»
Photo: X-ray image, for which the patient was injected with medical barium contrast
The Main Investigative Directorate of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation for St. Petersburg reacted swiftly to fatal poisonings. On January 28, a criminal case was initiated on the fact of causing death by negligence (Article 109 part 3 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation) and the provision of services that do not meet the safety requirements for the life and health of consumers (Article 238 part 3 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). On the same day, the investigators confiscated all documentation and equipment from the CDC. The city prosecutor's office and the chairman of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation Alexander Bastrykin took control of the investigation.
On the evening of January 28, operatives detained the first defendant, Evgeny Popov, head doctor of CDC No. 1. The court placed him in custody until March 26. According to the investigation, it was Popov who approved the application for the purchase from NevaReactiv LLC of the drug Barium Sulfate 0.10 (H2O)%, which is not included in the state register of medicines, cannot be used for medical purposes and poses a danger to human life and health.
The city health committee has not yet clarified how a medical facility could buy a non-medical drug and give it to patients for a long time. On the other hand, officials from the Komzdrav immediately warned that barium sulfate, after which people died, was also used in other hospitals in St. Petersburg. On January 28, Roszdravnadzor urgently banned the use of the drug.
In the meantime, the investigators studied the lists of those who had undergone a gastrointestinal examination in the medical center in recent months. On January 28, an announcement was posted on his website: “We ask all patients who have undergone a stomach exam using barium sulfate and are feeling unwell to contact us immediately.” So it turned out that medical procedures turned into death in December for three more people.
— As of February 15, there were seven dead and about 30 injured in the criminal case. But the investigation is ongoing, examinations are being carried out, and the numbers may change,” Sergey Kapitonov, senior assistant to the head of the department for interaction with the media of the Main Investigative Committee of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation for St. Petersburg, told Novaya Gazeta.