Neonatologist Elina Sushkevich, according to the investigation, deliberately administered a lethal dose of magnesium to the newborn. The Kaliningrad Regional Court, on the basis of the jury’s verdict, acquitted Elena Belaya, the acting chief physician of the Maternity Hospital No. 4 in Kaliningrad, and Elina Sushkevich, the anesthesiologist-resuscitator of the Regional Perinatal Center. They were accused of killing a premature baby in November 2018. The judge put a question to the jury: is it proven that on November 6, 2018, in maternity hospital No. 4, a newborn was administered 10 ml of “magnesium sulfate” through the umbilical catheter, as a result of which the newborn died on the spot from poisoning? The jury’s verdict was negative.
According to the court’s press service, the defense and prosecution presented their positions on the jury’s verdict. As a result, the court agreed with their decision. The case was examined by a jury at the request of the defense of the accused. On Thursday, they addressed the jury with their final words.
Belaya stated that the version of the accusation does not correspond to reality and that she did not give instructions to kill the baby, but was outraged by the work of her subordinates. Sushkevich claimed that she did not kill the child and did not give him magnesium sulfate. According to her, the baby died because it was in an extremely critical condition. While she was in the maternity ward, she tried to save the baby, and she had no reason to hasten its death, she said.
In the Investigative Committee, commenting on the court’s decision, it was noted that “emotional assessments have become more prevalent than legally established facts and expert conclusions”. According to the agency’s representative Svetlana Petrenko, magnesium sulfate was administered to the child immediately before its death, and investigators have found that false information was given about the child’s birth history, stating that the child was stillborn. Petrenko stressed that those responsible for the baby’s death have been acquitted.
After her acquittal, Sushkevich told journalists that she intends to return to work at the regional perinatal center as soon as possible. “I know they are waiting for me at work, they probably counted the days. I definitely miss everyone, we haven’t seen each other for a year and a half, I want to work… All suspicions and accusations have been completely cleared from me. I hope that no parent, no person will ever come up with, not even entertain the thought that doctors can kill their child,” – she quotes her words to RIA Novosti.
Elena Belaya was initially charged over the death of an infant at Maternity Hospital No. 4. She was accused of exceeding the limits of her authority, with serious consequences. Initially, she was placed in pre-trial detention, but after the professional community rallied to her defense and the governor of the Kaliningrad region, Anton Alikhanov, appealed to the investigators to soften the measure of detention, she was released from the detention center under house arrest.
Elena Belaya was first accused of abuse of office, and then – of organizing a murder. We explain quickly, simply, and clearly what happened, why it matters, and what happens next. The number of offers should remain: episodes. The end of the story. Podcast Advertising.
In June 2019, the Investigative Committee opened another criminal case – under the article on the organization of the murder of a minor. At the same time, Sushkevich was arrested. She was also placed under house arrest. The child, whose death prompted an investigation, was born on November 6, 2018, at the Kaliningrad Maternity Hospital No. 4. His mother, Zamira Akhmedova, a 27-year-old citizen of Uzbekistan, gave birth in her sixth month of pregnancy. The baby was born with a weight of 700 grams.
According to the investigation, the acting chief doctor of the Belaya maternity hospital, after receiving information from the doctors on duty about the child’s serious condition, understood that its death would worsen the statistics, which “could negatively affect her further appointment as chief doctor. For this reason, as well as to save the resources of the maternity hospital, Belaya “made the decision to kill the newborn”. According to investigators, Belaya gave instructions not to give the premature baby an expensive drug and to falsify its documents when it died. “In order to commit the murder of the minor, Belaya recruited Dr. Sushkevich, who arrived as part of the resuscitation team to provide medical assistance to the child and transport him to the perinatal center, with whom she allegedly discussed the method of killing the child in advance,” the investigation said.
According to the Investigative Committee of Russia (SKR), the resuscitator Sushkevich administered a lethal dose of the drug “magnesium sulfate”, after which the baby died. “In addition, according to Belaya’s instructions, in order to conceal the murder of the child, false information was deliberately introduced into the birth history, stating that it was a case of intranatal death, i.e. the death of the fetus,” the SKR statement said. Sushkevich was eventually charged with murder, and Belaya with his organization.
The criminal case against the doctors has generated widespread public response. Many representatives of the medical community and parents of children saved by doctors have come out in support. The Russian Society of Neonatology, which spoke in support of its colleague Sushkevich, stated that the baby was born with “extremely low body weight” in a critical condition and could have died at any moment. The head of the Scientific Institute of Emergency Pediatric Surgery and Traumatology, Leonid Roshal, appealed to President Vladimir Putin, noting that there could have been “confrontations” in the maternity ward and that Belaya could have suffered due to competition for the position of chief physician.