District judge in Minsk imposes asset freeze on Ecomedservice

A judge of the Kastrychnitski District Court in Minsk imposed an asset freeze on Ecomedservice, a large private clinic in downtown Minsk.

The asset freeze will apply to 10,020 million rubels ($1,050,000) worth of Ecomedservice’s property, an amount demanded in compensation by the parents of Yuliya Kubarava, a young woman who died following plastic surgery at the clinic last March. 

The trial of Ecomedservice’s director, chief engineer and anesthesiologist in connection with Ms. Kubarava’s death began in the Kastrychnitski District Court on Thursday. 

The anesthesiologist, Alyaksandr Shuraw, has been charged with failure to properly perform his professional duties and faces up to five years in prison. 

Ecomedservice’s director, Halina Valzhankina, and chief engineer, Vadzim Likhuta, will answer the charge of negligence that resulted in the death of a patient, an offense that also carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison. 

It was initially reported that the surgeon who had operated on Ms. Kubarava and two nurses were also accused of failure to properly perform their professional duties.

The 25-year-old Kubarava went into a coma during or shortly after the reconstructive nose surgery at Ecomedservice on March 26, 2013. She died on April 23.

According to the Investigative Committee`s press office, the surgical team used a faulty medical ventilator while Ms. Kubarava was under general anesthesia. She reportedly suffered brain injury as a result of oxygen deprivation and eventually died of multiple organ failure.

Alyaksandr Lukashenka directed on May 3 that the medical personnel and managers of Ecomedservice who are responsible for the death should be dismissed and punished severely.

The clinic’s director and its chief engineer were subsequently arrested and so were the four members of the surgical team that had carried out the operation. The chief engineer, the surgeon and two nurses were soon released on their own recognizance, while Ms. Valzhankina had remained in custody until early July and the anesthesiologist was released several weeks ago.