Will professional solidarity save doctor who “discharged” Nyaklyayeu?
To leave a “serious” patient in hospital or to send him to the police detention centre – it can only be decided by doctors. There is no common professional impropriety about it. However, there is professional solidarity that will always help. To leave a “serious” patient in hospital or to send him to the police detention centre – it can only be decided by doctors. There is no common professional impropriety about it. However, there is professional solidarity that will always help.
The events of December 19 in Independence Square did not only lead to numerous talks about the fate of the detained people but also produced a lot of arguments about doctors’ ethics. The reason for it was the fact that the chief physician of Emergency Hospital Vіctar Sіrenka had allowed “strangers” to take away beaten Uladzimir Nyaklyayeu from his ward. Meanwhile, a Maladzechna inhabitant Yan Lahvinovich is in Akrestina despite of an arm fracture and a head injury.
Victar Sirenka claimed on TV the next day that Nyaklyayeu had left the ward on his own. The presidential candidate’s wife Volha said that the chief physician had changed the diagnosis of the beaten politician. According to him, Nyaklyayeu had trivial injuries.
Euroradio has decided to find out whether there were some common rules of conduct for medics in such cases. However, a surgeon of one of Minsk hospitals Pavel explained that there were no documents containing such “norms” – it is up to doctors to decide whether the patient should be given to policemen or not.
Pavel: “This problem concerns only two sides: the person who wants to take the patient away and the doctor treating him – they have to reach an agreement. Everything depends on the doctor’s decision. Doctors have to take their own decisions in such situations. There are no documents indicating such rules”.
Pavel says that the alternatives here are doctors’ moral principles and their concern about their own wellbeing in a certain situation. Even if the public condemns the doctor, his colleagues will not do it.
Pavel: “I do not think they will blame him”.
Euroradio: “But why?”
Pavel: “They will be guided by professional solidarity. It can happen to anyone. You can blame someone today, and tomorrow everyone will blame you even if you think that you are innocent. What will you do then?”
However, even Volha Nyaklyayeva has decided not to punish Sidarenka and to weigh his actions on his conscience.
Volha Nyaklyayeva: “I know that pressure was exercised on him and he just gave in to it. Well, he is a weak-spirited person. Of course I have something to blame him for, but I am not going to sue him officially. Let him get over it himself. I do not want to get involved and I do not want to meet him”.
Maya Abramchyk is still in Minsk hospital #6. The girl has undergone a complicated operation on her leg broken by a special police officer in the square on Decembers 19. Maya says that policemen have already visited her several times in connection with it – they asked her to comment on the events and on her presence in Independence Square that evening. Maya does not know whether the doctors treating her had to make this choice – to send her to the detention center or to leave her in hospital. The girl says it has not been discussed. Anyway, she claimed that doctors did not have to fulfill their “requests” in such a situation and did not have to let policemen take their patients away.
Maya Abramchyk: “Of course, doctors should protect such people, this is out of question”.
The events of December 19 in Independence Square did not only lead to numerous talks about the fate of the detained people but also produced a lot of arguments about doctors’ ethics. The reason for it was the fact that the chief physician of Emergency Hospital Vіctar Sіrenka had allowed “strangers” to take away beaten Uladzimir Nyaklyayeu from his ward. Meanwhile, a Maladzechna inhabitant Yan Lahvinovich is in Akrestina despite of an arm fracture and a head injury.
Victar Sirenka claimed on TV the next day that Nyaklyayeu had left the ward on his own. The presidential candidate’s wife Volha said that the chief physician had changed the diagnosis of the beaten politician. According to him, Nyaklyayeu had trivial injuries.
Euroradio has decided to find out whether there were some common rules of conduct for medics in such cases. However, a surgeon of one of Minsk hospitals Pavel explained that there were no documents containing such “norms” – it is up to doctors to decide whether the patient should be given to policemen or not.
Pavel: “This problem concerns only two sides: the person who wants to take the patient away and the doctor treating him – they have to reach an agreement. Everything depends on the doctor’s decision. Doctors have to take their own decisions in such situations. There are no documents indicating such rules”.
Pavel says that the alternatives here are doctors’ moral principles and their concern about their own wellbeing in a certain situation. Even if the public condemns the doctor, his colleagues will not do it.
Pavel: “I do not think they will blame him”.
Euroradio: “But why?”
Pavel: “They will be guided by professional solidarity. It can happen to anyone. You can blame someone today, and tomorrow everyone will blame you even if you think that you are innocent. What will you do then?”
However, even Volha Nyaklyayeva has decided not to punish Sidarenka and to weigh his actions on his conscience.
Volha Nyaklyayeva: “I know that pressure was exercised on him and he just gave in to it. Well, he is a weak-spirited person. Of course I have something to blame him for, but I am not going to sue him officially. Let him get over it himself. I do not want to get involved and I do not want to meet him”.
Maya Abramchyk is still in Minsk hospital #6. The girl has undergone a complicated operation on her leg broken by a special police officer in the square on Decembers 19. Maya says that policemen have already visited her several times in connection with it – they asked her to comment on the events and on her presence in Independence Square that evening. Maya does not know whether the doctors treating her had to make this choice – to send her to the detention center or to leave her in hospital. The girl says it has not been discussed. Anyway, she claimed that doctors did not have to fulfill their “requests” in such a situation and did not have to let policemen take their patients away.
Maya Abramchyk: “Of course, doctors should protect such people, this is out of question”.
