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Under an initiative of the Voronezh Regional Investigations Directorate of the Investigative Committee of Russia, a probe into infliction of grave injury to an elderly woman launched by internal affairs authorities was referred to the Investigative Committee for further investigation.

As it was reported earlier, the Investigative Committee of Russia conducted an inspection under a claim by relatives of the 89-year-old woman on her receiving improper medical assistance in a healthcare institution in Voronezh. Having addressed the law enforcement authorities, the son of the victim reported that, on November 4, 2018, his mother had been subject to a lower limb amputation in Voronezh Regional Budgetary Healthcare Institution “Voronezh City Hospital No. 3”, where the woman had been delivered to for urgent hospitalization. However, after the surgery, her son had discovered that, as a result of the surgical intervention, her left leg to the middle of her thigh had been erroneously amputated instead of the right leg, though, according to him, there had been no medical reasons for that.

As part of the inspection, the investigators examined the crime scene; seized medical documentation; requested a forensic examination; questioned relatives of the victim and witnesses; collected testimonies from the medical staff; and requested documents from all healthcare institutions listed by the claimant. The inspection results showed that the surgeons inflicted a grave injury to the patient by amputating her left leg during the improper discharge of their duties.

Since the requirements of the Criminal Procedure Code of the Russian Federation state that a procedural decision on that category of offences is attributed to the investigative bodies of the internal affairs agencies, the probe was launched by police officers, following the inspection, into an offence under Part 2 of Article 118 of the Criminal Code of Russia (infliction of grave injuries by negligence in consequence of the improper discharge by a person of their professional duties).

The Voronezh Regional Directorate of the Investigative Committee of Russia addressed the Prosecutor’s Office on the issue of withdrawing of the probe from the police due to the public resonance of the incident, taking into account the special complexity of the investigation and the need to thoroughly establish all the circumstances of the incident, clarify the causes and conditions that had contributed to the commission of the crime. The decision was made to refer the probe to the Investigative Committee of Russia.

At the moment, officers of the Investigations Directorate of the Investigative Committee conduct a set of required investigative activities on the probe in order to establish all the circumstances of the incident. The criminal investigation is ongoing.