Sushkiewicz Greek Sergeyevna

Sushkiewicz Greek Sergeyevna

Biography

2021: Arrest in newborn murder case

At the end of October 2021, the chairman of the Investigative Committee of Russia, Alexander Bastrykin, instructed his subordinates to re-report on the investigation of the case against neonatologist Elina Sushkevich, accused of killing a baby in one of the maternity hospitals in Kaliningrad. A few days before this order, the Court of Appeal left Sushkevich in jail.

A criminal case against Sushkevich was opened in June 2019, Elena Belaya, the former head physician of Kaliningrad maternity hospital No. 4, is passing through it together with a neonatologist. According to investigators, in November 2018, Belaya decided that one of the newborn premature babies would not survive, which would spoil the hospital's statistics. Sushkevich, on the instructions of the head physician, injected the child with a lethal dose of magnesium sulfate, the UK claims. At the same time, neonatologists who spoke in support of colleagues noticed that the dose was not fatal, but one and a half times lower than the norm.

To hide the traces, the doctor entered into the medical history that the child died in the womb. In December 2020, the defendants were acquitted by a majority vote of the jury of the Kaliningrad Regional Court, which considered the very fact of the murder unproven. The acquittal was overturned by the First Court of Appeal in May 2021. The court sent the case for a new trial, and in June 2021, the Supreme Court, at the request of the Deputy Prosecutor General, transferred it to the Moscow Regional Court.

In October 2021, children's surgeon and president of the Union of the Medical Community "National Medical Chamber" Leonid Roshal made a statement in which he pointed out the need to stop the criminal prosecution against Sushkevich.

We believe this case is misjudged. The doctor is not to blame. We believe the forensic examination was carried out with big mistakes, "he said.[1]

2022

Jury guilty plea in baby death case

In the Moscow Regional Court in August 2022, the jury found the proven guilt of the doctors of the Kaliningrad maternity hospital Elena Belaya and Elina Sushkevich in the case of the death of a baby in 2018. The defendants were also found unworthy of leniency, Interfax was told in court.

The prosecutor's office will request sentences for them on August 30. Since the court considered that they do not deserve leniency, doctors face from 8 to 20 years in prison. The lawyer representing the interests of the victim, Larisa Guseva, after the end of the trial expressed satisfaction with the verdict. Guseva said that her principal was not present at the last meeting, since a year after the tragedy Zarimkhon Akhmedova gave birth to a son.

Resuscitator-anesthesiologist Elina Sushkevich and acting head physician of maternity hospital No. 4 Elena Belaya (from left to right)

Guseva noted that, according to the investigation, the child was killed by doctors out of a desire not to spoil the statistical indicators of the maternity hospital and avoid punishment.

Belaya and Sushkevich were confident that the boy would not survive. But the forensic medical examination (SME) denied this - the child was viable, Guseva said.

However, the chairman of the Association of Clinical Toxicologists of Russia Galina Sukhodolova is confident in the innocence of Sushkevich and Belaya. She claims that the SEM was carried out with violations: the doctor did not find in the materials of the criminal case either clinical, laboratory, or pathomorphological confirmation of magnesium poisoning and even confirmation of any quick intravenous jet injection of 10 ml of fluid into the body of a deeply premature baby a few minutes before death. Marina Degtyareva, head of the Department of Neonatology at the Faculty of DPO RNIMU named after N.I. Pirogova, who conducted an analysis of documents from the criminal case on the basis of a lawyer's request, also stated in an open letter that the conclusions of the SME were erroneous.^[2]

9 years in a general regime colony in the case of the murder of a baby

On September 6, 2022, the Moscow Regional Court sentenced Kaliningrad doctors Elina Sushkevich and Elena Belaya to nine and nine and a half years in a general regime colony, respectively, in the case of the murder of a premature baby in 2018.

I consider the jury's verdict unfair. There was no murder. Throughout the trial, there was tremendous pressure on the jury from the prosecution. This pressure was increased by the presiding officer, - said Elena Belaya in court.

According to the investigation, Belaya was afraid of a deterioration in the statistics of the maternity hospital and therefore gave Sushkevich instructions to administer a lethal dose of magnesium sulfate to an premature child.

And about. Head physician of the Kaliningrad maternity hospital Elena Belaya (right) and neonatologist Elina Sushkevich

Earlier, the first court of appeal of general jurisdiction overturned the court's decision and sent the case for review. The medical community defended the accused: in particular, the president of the Union of the Medical Community "National Medical Chamber" Leonid Roshal published an open letter in support of Kaliningrad doctors.

Taking into account the previous acquittal, the case of Sushkevich and Belaya could be retrained, said Aleksey Starchenko, a member of the Public Council for the Protection of Patients' Rights at Roszdravnadzor.

According to him, it could be article 109 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation on causing death by negligence: "This would suit everyone, unlike the current sentence."

Commenting on the verdict, another lawyer Sushkevich Andrei Zolotukhin complained that the prosecution was "actually" represented by a judge, and the state prosecutor "zealously and actively did not participate in the process." According to the defenders, the prosecution did not provide the court with new evidence, with the exception of a letter from the Deputy Minister of Health of the Kaliningrad Region Elena Semenova, Kommersant reports. Kaliningrad ^[3][4]

Notes