Three-year-old boy from Belgorod died after treatment for rotavirus in Abkhazia

What happened

A three-year-old boy from Belgorod contracted rotavirus while on vacation with his parents in Abkhazia and died after treatment at a local hospital. This was reported by the Telegram channel Baza, which is cited by Gazeta.Ru. The child had a fever of around 38°C for several days, and he was taken to a hospital in Sukhumi. At the time of admission, the boy was active, but after an IV drip his condition deteriorated sharply: his skin turned yellow, seizures began, and then the child fell into a coma. It turned out that he had developed brain swelling.

Transfer to Russia and death

Local doctors began insisting that the family be sent to Russia. The parents took their son home, where doctors immediately said the child would not survive. “The little boy is already in heaven,” Russian doctors told the parents, according to Baza. The boy was placed in an infectious diseases ward in Sochi and put on a ventilator; 13 days later he died.

Investigation and criminal case

The family believes that Abkhazian doctors deliberately sent the child home so that he would not die in their hospital and they would not have to deal with the related issues with law enforcement. According to the expert examination, the boy died of an acute intestinal infection complicated by brain necrosis; why he developed brain swelling remains to be established. Investigators opened a criminal case under the article on causing death by negligence and sent a request to question the doctors from Abkhazia.

Context

This is not the only recent case of a child dying after a medical procedure reported by Russian media: it was previously reported that a three-year-old girl died after a routine adenoid removal in Cherepovets. The cases are not connected, apart from the common theme — both involve the deaths of young children in medical facilities.