Russian Doctors Say They Weren’t Warned Patients Were Nuclear Accident Victims

[Rogue Valley]

Exclusive: Russian Doctors Say They Weren’t Warned Patients Were Nuclear Accident Victims

“Thirty-three years later and our government hasn’t learned a thing. They keep trying to hide the truth.”

Arkhangelsk Regional Clinical Hospital, where radiation patients were treated.

8/16/19
The three injured men arrived at the hospital around 4:30 pm, naked and wrapped in translucent plastic bags. The state of the patients made staff suspect they were dealing with something very serious. But the only information they had at the time was that there had been an explosion at a nearby military site around noon. “No one — neither hospital directors, nor Health Ministry officials, nor regional officials or the governor — notified staff that the patients were radioactive,” one of the clinic’s surgeons told The Moscow Times by phone this week. “The hospital workers had their suspicions, but nobody told them to protect themselves.” The hospital was Arkhangelsk Regional Clinical Hospital, a public healthcare center in Russia’s far north, and the day was last Thursday, Aug. 8. After the explosion, radiation spiked to as much as 20 times its normal level for about 30 minutes in the region’s second largest city of Severodvinsk. Russia’s state nuclear agency Rosatom has reported that the accident killed five of its staff members.

Russian authorities are keeping the circumstances surrounding the explosion shrouded in mystery. The lack of information has led to confusion among locals, who reportedly scrambled to buy up all of the iodine, a chemical used to limit harm to radiation exposure, in the Arkhangelsk region. They are not the only ones who have been left confused and demanding answers. Four male doctors at the Arkhangelsk hospital — two in senior positions — and a medical worker told The Moscow Times that its staff have been left shocked and angered by the events that took place. The doctors said that all staff who worked with the patients directly were asked by Federal Security Service (FSB) agents on Aug. 9 to sign non-disclosure agreements that prevent them from talking about what happened. “They weren’t forced to sign them, but when three FSB agents arrive with a list and ask for those on the list to sign, few will say no,” said one of the senior doctors. The Health Ministry, the FSB, the Arkhangelsk’s governor’s office and the Arkhangelsk Regional Clinical Hospital did not respond to requests for comment for this article.

One of the Arkhangelsk doctors was found to have Caesium-137 in their muscle tissue. Caesium-137 is a by-product of the nuclear fission of Uranium-235.

No word on the health of another 60 medical people flown from Arkhangelsk to Moscow for tests.

I imagine they will be tested at Moscow Hospital №6 which specializes in treating nuclear/radiation accident victims.

 

[swing_voter]

Chernobyl was what? 30-40 years ago?

Not much has changed.

 

[Rogue Valley]

Chernobyl was what? 30-40 years ago?

Not much has changed.

In Russia.

Ukraine changed their entire nuclear reactor system.

 

[Rogue Valley]

Arkhangelsk Doctors Weren’t Warned About Radiation, Surgeon Confirms in First Public Account | The Moscow Times

The Kremlin has declined to comment on media reports about the incident that cite anonymous hospital sources.

Doctor Igor Semin.

8/23/19
In a previously unreported social media post, a Russian doctor has publicly confirmed that his colleagues were forced to treat radiation victims after a deadly nuclear explosion earlier this month without basic equipment or knowledge of the accident. A blast at a military base in northern Russia killed seven people and injured six on Aug. 8, with three of the victims being taken to the Arkhangelsk Regional Clinical Hospital. First responders at the hospital were not warned that they would be dealing with patients exposed to radiation, The Moscow Times reported last Friday, citing five hospital sources who asked to remain anonymous. Since then, other media outlets, including Novaya Gazeta and BBC Russia, have provided similar accounts of the incident based on anonymous sources. The Moscow Times has now discovered the first known public account of the incident from an employee at the Arkhangelsk Regional Clinical Hospital. Igor Semin, a cardiovascular surgeon at the hospital, wrote a post on the Vkontakte social media network dated Aug. 14, criticizing the authorities for their handling of the incident. “My colleagues found themselves in front of the victims with jack s***, not even a simple respirator,” he wrote. “No one said anything [to the doctors]; they weren’t even warned. They were abandoned and left to fend for themselves.” Semin declined a request from The Moscow Times for additional comment.

Doctor Semin will probably face legal repercussions. All medical staff at the Arkhangelsk hospital were asked (coerced) by the FSB (Russian Security Service) to sign a Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA).