In the recently open perinatal center in Bryansk, 11 children died

Doctors consider mortality indicators normal; SK opened a criminal case

On June 23, the Investigative Committee announced the initiation of negligence in connection with the death of 11 newborns in the perinatal center of Bryansk, opened only three months ago and in early June unexpectedly closed to preventive work. Former patients of the maternity hospital claim that their children died from infection, and are asked to intervene by President Vladimir Putin; Doctors deny this and say that the mortality rate in the center is almost no different from the average in the country.

The perinatal center at the Bryansk city hospital No. 1 was opened on March 7, 2017, on the first day of work a boy and a girl were born there. The next day, the center was visited by Russian President Vladimir Putin, Deputy Prime Minister Olga Golodets and Minister of Health Veronika Skvortsova.

The maternity hospital was called unique to the region; It was reported that they will help women with pregnancy pathologies, nursing newborns with an extremely low body weight. The center’s website says that it "provides specialized medical care to newborn and pregnant women of high risk."

On June 9, the center was temporarily closed. The Bryanskaya Street who wrote about this claimed that this may be due to “cases of sudden death of premature children” due to nosocomial infection.

The head of the center, Alexander Kulachenko, said that the center is closed to clean ventilation, and cases of deaths are not related. “The fact is that this is a new perinatal center. We need to carry out such work, ”he said . At the same time, TASS, citing the head physician of the hospital, Konstantin Vorontsov, wrote that “disinfection measures” are held in the center. In the regional health department, ventilation inspection was called a preventive.

In mid -June, several patients talked about the death of their children in the hospital. Bryansk activist, secretary on the ideology of the regional branch of the Communist Party Alexander Kupriyanov (author of a series of videos entitled "#Doctor Pravda"), shot a video with the testimonies of three women - Olesya Safonova, Elena Gubacheva and Alena Godunova.

According to women, their children died after several days in intensive care, and their condition worsened unexpectedly; Sepsis began in newborns, in two cases, the children were found in children Candida. Safonova also said that the doctors “allowed to look” how her daughter dies, and did not provide a psychologist.

Olesya Safonova created the VKontakte group "Perinatal Center Bryansk - Children's killer." According to her, she found 15 women whose children died in this hospital; All newborns had more than two kilograms. “I ask, Vladimir Vladimirovich, so that you deal with this. Staphylococcus and Candida is a maternity hospital, hospital infection. Please help, help, ”she says in the video.

Officially is known about the death of 11 children. The Bryansk city hospital believes that mortality in the hospital is at the usual level. Alexander Kulachenko told Komsomolskaya Pravda that the employees of the center "managed to leave 25 children with a low and extremely low body weight."

“The level of survival of such children was 63%. This is a rather high indicator, given that the center opened just three months ago, ”he said. According to the head physician of the hospital Konstantin Vorontsov, about 70% of children with pathology survive in Russian perinatal centers and in the center "planned to achieve such results in the near future."

The authorities of the Bryansk region began checking the perinatal center. As it became known on June 21, the regional prosecutor's office, SK and Roszdravnadzor began checks on patients; The Department of Health said that the head of the region Alexander Bogomaz ordered to check the work of the center of the interdepartmental commission.

The department’s website published data on the first three months of the center: it is reported that 705 children were born there, in 60 cases the birth was premature, 43 children were in intensive care. The message is given not about the dead, but about surviving children: “Thanks to the use of modern perinatal technologies, 32 children are preserved, including 16 - with a low and extremely low body weight.”

On June 23, the Investigative Committee opened a criminal case under the article “negligence, which entailed by negligence the death of two or more persons” (part 3 of Article 293 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). There are no preliminary conclusions in the SK report on the case - investigators intend to find out “issues of the quality of medical services provided by the institution”.

Victor Davydov