In This Country, Virus Doctors Are 'Falling' Out of Windows

Russia sees its 3rd health-care worker take a tumble after complaints about COVID-19
By Jenn Gidman,  Newser Staff
Posted May 4, 2020 9:03 AM CDT
Updated May 9, 2020 7:00 AM CDT
In This Country, Virus Doctors Are 'Falling' Out of Windows
Stock photo.   (Getty Images/peterspiro)

Doctors the world over are struggling to contend with the coronavirus, but in Russia, a unique problem is plaguing attending health-care workers. The Moscow Times reports that Alexander Shulepov, 37, a medic in Novaya Usman, Russia, suffered a skull fracture and is now in critical condition after he fell from the second story of a rural hospital. Shulepov, who himself had been diagnosed with COVID-19, had recently filmed a video with colleague Alexander Kosyakin in which they complained they'd been forced to keep working by higher-ups, and in Shulepov's case, despite his diagnosis. A few days after that video, Shulepov suddenly made a second one in which he said the initial film was "high on emotions," and insisted he now only had a "runny nose," per the Metro. His fall out of the hospital window took place this past weekend.

Local media report that Kosyakin has been questioned by cops over his spreading of "fake news" and is facing criminal charges. Shulepov isn't the first Russian health-care worker to meet this suspicious fate: Two senior female doctors also were reported to have fallen out of hospital windows under eyebrow-raising circumstances. One, a 48-year-old who plummeted 60 feet out the window of a Moscow hospital, had tested positive for the virus herself and had been blamed for the spread of COVID-19 at her facility, the Sun reports. The second, a 47-year-old mother of two, also took a six-story tumble after pushing back on a lack of personal protective equipment for workers at her Siberian hospital. Both women died. Perhaps unsurprisingly, hospital officials are denying anything is amiss or refusing to comment. (More Russia stories.)

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