“Instead of treatment, traces began to be swept away”: in Anapa, father seeks punishment for doctors injuring his son

Anapa resident Radik Galimulin has been trying for the second year to bring to justice the doctors of the children's city hospital who crippled his child. In 2018, his three-month-old son was hospitalized in the Anapa City Children's Hospital with dermatitis, and was discharged with a destroyed hip joint. According to Galimulin, the negligence of doctors became the reason.

According to RT Galimulin, his son Radomir was taken to the somatic department of the Anapa Children's Hospital on January 16, 2018. The boy had a skin rash. The local pediatrician suspected atopic dermatitis and sent the boy to hospitalization. Radomir's parents claim that he was infected with Staphylococcus aureus in the hospital.

“There was no infection upon admission to the hospital, the tests were clean,” Galimulin shows the information. - We suspect that the baby was infected already in the hospital when the catheter was inserted, because the nurse did not change her disposable gloves. "Because of the infection, our son's hip joint collapsed and multiple phlegmon (purulent formations. - RT ) formed in the body."

After two weeks in the hospital, the boy’s condition did not improve, but, according to the parents, the doctors did not take any measures to diagnose - no one could tell the parents what the child was sick with. According to Galimulin, on January 29, Natalya Khrebina, in consultation with regional specialists, prescribed the baby a course of the powerful hormonal drug prednisone.

Subsequently, a forensic examination carried out at the request of Radik Galimulin found that the doctors prescribed the wrong treatment - prednisolone is not used for dermatitis, which was suspected in a child.

Moreover, it turned out that the dosage of the drug was calculated incorrectly - experts say that the permitted dose was exceeded five times. As a result, the child’s immune system was suppressed, which contributed to the progression of purulent processes in his body.

“Forged documents”

The day after the start of the prednisone course, Radomir became completely ill, the temperature rose to 39.1 and did not drop, his father says. According to him, in this state, the child spent a week, and even after a blood test, which showed an acute inflammatory process, the boy continued to inject huge doses of the drug.

“The child began to bend strangely legs, but the doctor ignored it. My wife and I were in a complete stupor, many times asked if our son had been infected during the installation of a catheter, because the temperature did not drop. My wife forbade me to do the last infusion of prednisone, we already had no idea what our child was being treated for, and asked us to be transferred to another hospital, ”recalls Radik.

• © Photo from the personal archive of the Galimulin

Only after the child spent a week with a high fever, on February 5, the doctors took an infection test - and discovered Staphylococcus aureus. The boy’s father claims that the analysis date was subsequently faked, writing that it was carried out only on February 6, the date of the medical consultation was changed, after which the child was decided to be transferred to the regional hospital - from February 6 to 7.

“The worst thing is that, already realizing that the child has an infection, the doctor, instead of diagnosing and saving him normally, began to notice traces of her mistakes - forge documents and transfer the dates of analyzes and consultation closer to the date of transfer to the regional hospital. At that time, the child already had phlegmon in the body - my son literally rotted alive, and the doctors did nothing. If even one abscess burst, they would not have been saved, ”says Galimulin.

Operations and Rehabilitation

Radomir was delivered to the regional hospital by ambulance only in the evening of February 7. In the admission department, the boy examined a nurse and immediately spoke about problems with the musculoskeletal system. The child was transferred to the emergency surgery department. Within a week after being transferred to the regional hospital, the boy underwent four operations.

“We had an x-ray, the picture showed how badly the joint was deformed - it was as if the mice had bitten it. We found other phlegmons - in the retroperitoneal space, ”says RT Galimulin.

When the baby was transported back to Anapa after all the surgical interventions, the parents studied all the medical documents and realized that the doctors of the city hospital made a lot of violations and inflicted huge damage on the health of their son.

According to Galimulin, he and his wife came to Dr. Khrebina and expressed her claims, asking them to provide the child with the necessary rehabilitation, but she allegedly refused.

“Probably, the doctor was scared at that time, because she already realized that we all know and that our claims are substantiated. Radomir is now two years old, and he will have more than one operation. Due to damage to the joint, there is a risk that it will develop incorrectly and the child will become disabled, ”the man explains.

Examination and criminal case

The Galimulins managed to open a criminal case against the doctors of the Anapa hospital, however, the investigation is being delayed, Radik claims. A forensic examination, for example, took a whole year, but experts confirmed that the child was injured due to the actions of doctors.

As a result of the audit, many violations were discovered - more than 20 points, including fraud with medical documents. But, according to the authors of the examination, the child became infected with Staphylococcus aureus even before hospitalization, because upon admission, tests already showed the presence of an inflammatory process - however, ignored by doctors.

Further complications, including the destruction of the hip joint and the formation of phlegmon, arose precisely because of medical errors: "underestimation of the severity of the condition of the child", "lack of necessary laboratory control", "lack of interpretation of the results of the tests and symptoms of the child" and "oversizing" of prednisone, which it was impossible to give the boy at all.

“The development of a child’s paraossal phlegmon and phlegmon of the retroperitoneal space consists in a direct causal relationship with the violations committed by medical staff of the Anapa Medical Clinical Hospital“ DKB ”and qualifies as causing serious harm to health,” the text of the examination at the disposal of RT says.

“They will evade responsibility”

Although Radomir’s parents are convinced that the child was crippled due to the negligence of doctors, the crime was qualified under the less severe Art. 118 of the Criminal Code - "infliction of grievous bodily harm through negligence."

Seeking to investigate the doctors, Galimulin appealed both to the Investigative Committee, and to the city and regional health departments, but, according to them, they received only unsubscribes. While the child was in the hospital, the father collected the signatures of the inhabitants of Anapa to send them to the president with a request to improve the level of health care in the city.

“I did not find a place for myself, I collected signatures in Anapa for the president. My wife and my eight-year-old daughter helped me, she was also very worried about her brother. We managed to collect six or seven thousand signatures, ”Galimulin said.

While Galimulin is upholstering the thresholds of officials, the chances of punishing incompetent doctors are melting. The term for bringing the perpetrators under Art. 118 of the Criminal Code expires in February 2020, but there are still no shifts in the case, Radik states. He also complains that he cannot achieve the re-qualification of the article as “negligence” - according to it, the terms for bringing the perpetrators to justice are longer.

“I believe that the doctors who crippled my son can evade responsibility,” Galimulin admits. - The article is not competent - in all respects there should be the 293rd article - “negligence”, since the official also appears in the case, there was a falsification of documents and so on. But these doctors will continue to work in the children's hospital. ”

In turn, the Ministry of Internal Affairs in the Krasnodar Territory notes that investigative actions are still ongoing.

“A criminal case has been instituted against the head of the children's somatic department of the hospital in Anapa under Part 2 of Art. 118 of the Criminal Code. Currently, the necessary investigative steps are being taken to complete the inquiry and transfer the case to court for consideration on the merits. Responsibility under this article provides for imprisonment for up to one year, ”said Alexander Runov, head of the press service of the Russian Central Internal Affairs Directorate for the Krasnodar Territory. The department said that they did not have information about the date the trial began.