“I’m thin myself, a growth hangs down”: a cancer patient painfully died in Matrosskaya Tishina

In the prison hospital “Matrosskaya Tishina” in terrible agony from cancer in the terminal stage, a prisoner named Petrov died. He did not live just a few days before his 55th birthday. On the eve of his death, a medical commission (consisting of four physicians) of the City Clinical Oncological Hospital No. 1 recognized that he did not have a disease that prevented detention.

No, this is not some kind of mistake. The decisions of the GKOB No. 1 were reread many times in the pre-trial detention center. In conclusion, there is also about the last stage, and about the fact that the prisoner needs hospice supervision. That is, civilian doctors, in fact, said: he is dying and counting for days, but he can be kept in custody … maybe. Is this a new level of cynicism? Or do doctors have their own reasons, unknown to us (and Hippocrates)?

The MK columnist, a member of the PMC of Moscow, analyzed the peculiarities of the attitude of civilian doctors towards prisoners.

Dmitry Petrov was arrested at the end of May this year. He was charged with article 111 part 4 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation – “causing bodily harm with a fatal outcome.” When he was brought to the Matrosskaya Tishina pre-trial detention center, doctors in the quarantine department drew attention to the visitor’s strange thinness and a huge tumor protruding in the lower abdomen. Popov said that, they say, she bothered him himself, and that he even came to hospital No. 62, where he passed all the necessary tests. An important point: this is a city oncology hospital. Oncologists told him about a malignant tumor, but the patient did not have time to undergo the prescribed treatment – he was arrested. And now Petrov was again taken out of the SIZO to City Clinical Hospital No. 62, where he again passed the tests. The medical council ascertained the last stage of cancer and showed the patient palliative treatment. It would seem that with such documents the place is definitely free. But the final decision on the presence of a disease that prevents detention is made by the GKOB No. 1 (when it comes to an oncological diagnosis). And here the unexpected happened. On August 23, 2022, the State Security Committee issued a refusal.

“At first we didn’t believe our eyes when we saw the document,” the doctors of the Matrosskaya Tishina hospital say, “We still haven’t found an explanation for this conclusion. They thought to send him for re-examination. In the meantime, they wanted him to be prescribed chemotherapy. But they didn’t make it…

In the prison ward, Petrov spent his last days surrounded by three sick prisoners (including one lying down: in order to arrest him, the judge specially went to the intensive care unit). They recall with horror what it was like for him.

“He weighed less than 40 kg, skin and bones,” says one of the men. – And a huge growth hung from his side … But he hoped that they would let him go home and he would be cured. As we understand, he has housing in Moscow and relatives.

– On the eve of his death, he kept asking when chemotherapy would begin. And everyone did not appoint her and did not appoint her. Complained of severe pain. On the morning of September 6, he got up and sat on the bunk. And as if frozen in this position. I approached – and he was no longer breathing.

Why, after all, did civilian doctors refuse to admit the obvious and refused to release them?

Ex-Senator Boris Shpigel lies in the next cell-ward. He was turned down three times, despite suffering an acute heart attack and a documented conclusion that he needed round-the-clock care (he could not even wash himself).

Spiegel shows an interesting certificate signed by the senior investigator for especially important cases of the Main Investigative Committee of the Investigative Committee. In a nutshell: this is an instruction from the Ministry of Internal Affairs to carry out a set of operational-search measures to collect information about Spiegel’s illegal actions to change the measure of restraint, including during a medical examination. There is a response from the police, which says that the order has been accepted, work is underway.

– What do you think, what doctor, having seen this document, will write that a person is subject to release due to illness?

You really can’t argue with that. Perhaps it is the appearance of such certificates that can explain the fact that in 2022, out of a hundred seriously ill prisoners, only … three were released. This, I think, explains the arrests of those who were initially in a very bad condition at the time of detention.

With the story of the arrest of the neighbor of the deceased Popov, it turned out, however, an opportunity. A preventive measure was indeed chosen for him in intensive care. For a man who was suspected of stealing 30 million rubles, law enforcement officers staged a chase. As a result, he got into a terrible accident (“Mercedes”, on which the fugitive was driving, crashed into an obstacle). The ambulance took the man to the hospital. The police did not step aside from him, believing that he could get up and run away at any moment. The assurances of doctors from the intensive care unit that he would not be able to move for at least a few months (all broken) did not suit them. And they asked the court for an arrest.

“Here I am now,” says the “fugitive.” – I don’t move at all. My cellmates take care of me as best they can. But on the other hand, the investigator is calm that I will not go anywhere.