Second Russian doctor in mystery fall: Physician with coronavirus ‘blamed for outbreak at training facility’ plunges to her death at hospital after medic who reported PPE shortages fell from a window
- Natalya Lebedeva was accused of failing to stop an outbreak, colleagues claim
- She was involved in treating the city’s ‘patient zero’, a top cosmonaut trainer
- Her death comes after a doctor fell from a hospital window after PPE complaints
- Here’s how to help people impacted by Covid-19
A doctor who contracted coronavirus in Russia’s Star City where cosmonauts are trained has died after falling from a hospital window.
Natalya Lebedeva had been accused of failing to stop an outbreak of Covid-19 inside the restricted city, colleagues claimed.
Her death comes after Dr Yelena Nepomnyashchaya fell from a window at a hospital in Krasnoyarsk after allegedly complaining about medical shortages. She is now fighting for life.
Lebedeva had been directly involved in the treatment of Star City’s ‘patient zero’ – a top trainer who had been in direct contact with cosmonauts, it is believed.
Lebedeva was being treated in Moscow and fell from the sixth floor of the Federal Biomedical Agency in an apparent suicide.
A doctor who contracted coronavirus in Russia’s Star City (file photo) where cosmonauts are trained has died after falling from a hospital window
Star City’s ‘patient zero’ was one of the heads of the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Centre, according to Moskovsky Komsomolets (MK) newspaper.
All cosmonauts and astronauts are based in the city before flying to the International Space Station.
Lebedeva had been head of the emergency department at the Medical-Sanitary Unit No 2 in Star City and was involved in treating the first patient, reports say.
After the initial infection, coronavirus is believed to have spread among health workers linked to Lebedeva.
By early last week, six people had developed the virus in Star City, although unofficial accounts say the number was 22.
Colleagues say Lebedeva had faced ‘accusations from her superiors that she had not taken sufficient measures to ensure the safety of her employees which resulted in the infecting of several health workers’, according to Russian media.
Among those infected was Olga Minina, head of the Star City hospital where Lebedev worked.
It is unclear whether the initial ‘patient zero’ had any contact with cosmonauts who have since flown to the space station.
The latest crew to travel to the space station – NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy plus Russian cosmonauts Anatoly Ivanishin and Ivan Vagner – left Star City on March 24 before travelling to Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
In a separate case, another doctor – Yelena Nepomnyashchaya, pictured – fell from a hospital window in Krasnoyarsk. She survived but is fighting for her life in a different hospital
Lebedeva’s death comes after different doctor fell from a window at a hospital in Krasnoyarsk after allegedly complaining about medical shortages.
Dr Yelena Nepomnyashchaya survived the fall but is fighting for her life in a different Krasnoyarsk hospital.
Aleksey Podkorytov, the deputy head of Krasnoyarsk’s regional government, played down claims that her fall was linked to medical shortages.
‘So many things could have happened,’ he speculated. ‘It could have been because it was spring, the overall stress, something in her family.
‘It’s difficult to say what could have happened.
‘There was nothing extraordinary happening at the time, just a routine conference call with doctors’ reports.
‘If we were to fail after each routine conference call this would have not led to anything good.’