Investigation into politician’s death opened

The Investigative Committee has opened a criminal case into the death of A Just Russia member Maxim Glovoznin, who died at the steps of Moscow’s Vishnevsky hospital after doctors refused to help him, as his friends attest.

Head of Russia’s Investigative Committee Alexander Bastrykin demanded a thorough investigation into the politician’s death.

The case has been opened under “not helping the sick and leaving them in danger,” and those found guilty could face up to three years in prison.

Bastrykin said investigators would have to determine the full circumstances of the death and evaluate the action or inaction of medical personnel. Investigators have also been asked to check all the institute’s documents to see if they comply with federal laws.

The tragic death happened on April, 14, when Goloviznin felt ill in the car and collapsed.

It happened next to Vizhnevsky hospital, and Goloviznin’s friends say they tried to get him into the building, but security would not let them through. The man died outside of hospital.

The security guard called a doctor, but was told that the hospital did not accept emergency cases, and so no one could help. The doctors told Goloviznin’s friends to call an ambulance.

They even tried blocking the road, but it did not help. When the ambulance arrived, the Glovoznin was already dead.

The institute claims that as soon as the car with Goloviznin pulled up, they sent a duty doctor to look at the man. The medic declared him dead, head of the institute Valery Kubyshkin was quoted .

He also wrote that Goloviznin had died a long time before he reached the hospital.

Medical sources said the post-mortem determined that Goloviznin died two hours before he was taken to the hospital.

investigative department, however, said that the results of the post-mortem were not ready yet.

The Public Chamber was outraged at the incident.

“We are outraged at the actions of the security of the institute that refused to let a car with a dying man through to the territory of the organisation,” head of the commission on social issues and social policy Elena Nikolayeva said.

The Public Chamber will conduct its own investigation, she said.

We have to determine if the blame lies with the institute’s employees, or if it is the regulations of the health ministry that ban federal medical centres from accepting sick people from the street,” Nikolayeva said, adding that an analysis of the rules had to be conducted.

The number of complaints to the public chamber from people who were illegally refused treatment is growing, Nikolayeva said.

One of such cases was in Novosibirsk last year, when a refusal to treat a child for formal reasons resulted in the baby’s death.

Leonid Roshal Director of Moscow’s children surgery and trauma unit, President of national medical ward told Interfax about a comparable, but staged, spectacle outside his clinic.

On Thursday some people walked into the reception and said a woman needed emergency treatment in a car.

“An anti-shock room was arranged, the neuro-surgeon walked down, got ready. However, when everything was ready the doctors came to the car and found out that the woman did not require help,” he said.

Roshal said the woman was a professional actress, and said that if it was an attempt to provoke, then it is worrying.

Roshal recently criticised health ministry officials, saying that “It is, of course, a disaster that there is not a single normal experienced organiser of healthcare in the healthcare ministry.”