Coronavirus: Infected doctor Alexander Shulepov takes a ‘fall’ after going public

Three doctors have fallen from hospital windows after criticising the state’s coronavirus response, amid a surge of cases.

A medic in the intensive care unit of Moscow’s Centre of the City Clinical Hospital Number 52. Picture: Reuters

Late last month, Russian doctor Alexander Shulepov complained in an online video that he was ­ordered to stay at work despite having tested positive for the ­novel coronavirus. Ten days later he fell from a second-storey window in his hospital and suffered a fracture­d skull.

In the two weeks before Dr Shulepov’s fall, two other Russian physicians fell from the windows of different hospitals. Both died in those cases, local media reported.

The cases, which police say are under investigation, come as doctors have become more outspoken about their long hours on duty and lack of protective equipment amid a surge of coronavirus infections in the country. Russian authorities and hospital leaders have tried to mute the criticism.

Russian social media has ­reacted with a mix of sympathy, shock and suspicion over the circumstances around the incidents.

In late April, Dr Shulepov and a colleague, Alexander Kosyakin, filmed a video. In it, Mr Kosyakin, a paramedic, said the chief doctor at the hospital where they worked was forcing the pair to continue on the job despite Dr Shulepov’s diagnosis.

“They won’t let us off our shift,” Mr Kosyakin said. “We’re staying at work,” Dr Shulepov confirmed, sitting shoulder-to-shoulder with Mr Kosyakin. Off camera, a voice told them to stop filming, but they continued.

“This is the reality, from a firsthand account,” Mr Kosyakin said. Dr Shulepov later recorded a second video in which he retracted his complaints, saying his “emotions were running high” at the time.

Then, last Saturday, he fell from a window of the hospital in western Russia where he worked and was being treated for coronavirus. Local media reported Dr Shulepov was in critical condition with a cracked skull.

Mr Kosyakin said in an interview that the facts in the video he recorded with Dr Shulepov were true and that he didn’t know why Dr Shulepov had recanted. He said he was unsure how Dr Shulepov fell from the window, but didn’t think he would jump intentionally.

“I’m in shock,” he said.

A spokeswoman for the health department in Voronezh, the region where Dr Shulepov worked, told state news agency TASS that the circumstances surrounding his fall were under investigation.

Russian hospitals have long been plagued by a shortage of doctors­, creating long waiting times, and many health facilities haven’t been renovated much since the Soviet era.

Russian President Vladimir Putin acknowledged last month that regions outside of Moscow don’t have enough hospital beds. A report in February by the country’s audit watchdog found that nearly a third of the country’s healthcare facilities had no running water.

Russian President Vladimir Putin. Picture: AFP

A rising number of people ill with COVID-19 — there were 177,160 confirmed cases and 1625 deaths in Russia as of Friday — is straining hospitals and their staff and prompting complaints about shortages of protective equipment and overcrowding in wards.

The Alliance of Doctors, a nongovernmental organisation that has been critical of government healthcare policies, says hospital executives have pressured doctors to stay quiet and threatened legal action against anyone who speaks out.

Doctors “work almost around the clock without vacation days or without sleep”, said Ivan Konovalov, a spokesman for the organisation. “The person isn’t just filing papers, they’re trying to save lives … That all combines with an incredi­ble amount of stress on workers, and some can’t take it.”

The group said at least five doctor­s have been reported to Russia­’s Investigative Committee, the country’s main federal investig­ating authority, for speaking out against conditions in hospitals. Mr Kosyakin said he has been charged with an administrative offence by police for his public criticism.

Natalya Trofimova, a doctor at the Priozyorsk Hospital outside St Petersburg, said she was fired last month for posting a photo on social­ media that showed doctors working without personal protective equipment. The notice of her dismissal said she had divulged “medical secrets”. “The stress is unbearable,” Dr Trofimova said.

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