- Three doctors in Russia fell out of hospital windows in the span of two weeks, prompting questions and speculation on the treatment of frontline healthcare workers amid the coronavirus pandemic.
- Two doctors died after the falls, and one remains in critical condition after sustaining a skull fracture after falling from a second-floor window.
- Two of the three doctors had been outspoken critics on Russia's lack of preparedness for the coronavirus and PPE shortages for medical workers on the frontlines.
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Two medical workers are dead and one has been hospitalized after falling from hospital windows in the span of two weeks under unknown circumstances, The Moscow Times reported.
Russian law enforcement is investigating the three separate incidents, which have prompted questions and speculation on the treatment of frontline healthcare workers amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Alexander Shulepov, 37, a paramedic in the city of Voronezh, is in critical condition after suffering from a skull fracture as a result of a fall out of a second-floor window. The Moscow Times reported Shulepov fell from the window of the hospital where he was being treated for coronavirus.
In an April 22 video, Shulepov's colleague Alexander Kosyakin posted a video of Shulepov claiming that he was forced to continue working at the hospital in spite of his COVID-19 diagnosis. Three days later, Shulepov withdrew his claims, saying he was "overwhelmed by emotions" at the time of the video.
"[Shulepov] is [in] an intensive care unit, as far as I know in a serious condition, last time I spoke to him was on the 30th of April, we checked in with each other," Kosyakin told CNN in an interview. "He felt fine, he was getting ready to get discharged from the hospital ... and all of a sudden this happened."
"It's not clear why and what for, so many questions that I don't even have the answer to," Kosyakin added.
Last Friday, Yelena Nepomnyashchaya, the interim head doctor at a hospital in Krasnoyarsk, succumbed to her injuries following a fall from the fifth floor on April 25, according to a Fox News report.
Nepomnyashchaya reportedly fell out of the window after a meeting with regional health officials to discuss turning the hospital where she worked into a coronavirus care facility.
However, Nepomnyashchaya had said there were PPE shortages and the staff was unprepared, leading to her to oppose changing the hospital into a coronavirus care facility.
The regional department of the Health Ministry denied her allegations in a statement to CNN, adding that "the hospital is in 'reserve' for coronavirus patients and its staff has been trained and equipped," CNN reported.
Natalya Lebedeva, who served as chief of emergency medical service at Star City — a cosmonaut training center outside Moscow — was being treated for suspected coronavirus, before she died after a fall from the hospital where she was being treated.
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