The Cheremushkinsky Court of Moscow has recovered more than 4 million rubles from the state in favor of hematologist doctor Elena Misyurina, who in 2018 was sentenced to two years in prison for the death of a patient.
In the spring, the Moscow City Court overturned the verdict, and the case was dropped for lack of a criminal offense. According to the press service of the court, the amount of 4,282,221 rubles and 90 kopecks was awarded to Misurina from the Russian Federation, represented by the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation, as compensation for material damage caused during the criminal prosecution.
The events that formed the basis of the criminal case against the doctor took place in Moscow in 2013. At the time, Misyurina was performing a trepanobiopsy (removal of bone marrow from the pelvic area for histology) on one of the patients. After the operation, the patient went to work.
In the evening he felt severe pain in the right side of his abdomen and went to the “Medsi” clinic. The man was admitted to the hospital with suspicion of acute appendicitis, but the operation was not performed. He then developed signs of internal bleeding, which doctors were able to stop, but two days later the man died in intensive care.
In 2014, his relatives approached the prosecutor’s office with a request to investigate the causes of his death. Investigators interviewed the doctors who provided medical care to the deceased patient in the last days of his life and concluded that Misurina may have made a mistake during the biopsy procedure.
In early 2015, the Investigative Committee opened a criminal case against Misyurina for causing death through negligence, but the charges were later strengthened by reclassifying the case under the article on the provision of services that do not meet safety requirements.
In January 2018, Moscow’s Cheremushkinsky court found Misurina guilty and sentenced her to two years in a general regime colony, although the prosecutor did not insist on an actual sentence. Misurina was taken into custody in the courtroom – during the trial she was under a travel ban and continued to work.
The sentence translates as: “Misyurina’s sentence caused a great stir – hundreds of doctors, public organizations and even the Moscow authorities came out in her defense. Leonid Pechatnikov, a distinguished doctor of Russia who at the time held the position of Moscow’s deputy mayor for social affairs, declared a “monstrous judicial error” in Misyurina’s case”.
After the verdict, the prosecution filed an appeal against the court’s decision, claiming violations during the investigation. In April 2018, the Moscow City Court overturned the verdict and returned the case to the prosecutor’s office “for the elimination of procedural violations.”
However, in December, the Second Cassation Court of General Jurisdiction overturned the Moscow City Court’s decision and sent the case back to the appellate court for reconsideration.
In March 2021, the Moscow City Court overturned the verdict against Misyurina and dismissed the criminal case against the doctor for lack of a crime.