Medical "legal lever": doctor challenged "personal discreditation" and "obstruction of justice"

      The reason for this was an order by the chief physician of the Verkhoshizhem Central District Hospital, Sergey Zonov, requiring his subordinate to take unpaid leave for the duration of her involvement in court proceedings — because "this is her personal matter." And in the event of "noncompliance with the decision of the Verkhoshizhem chief physician," Zonov threatens to apply sanctions: "dismissal for absenteeism" and "administrative liability." This is despite the fact that Lyubov Mikhailovna’s regular presence in the realm of Themis, being summoned as a third party, a witness and a plaintiff, is in fact indisputably facilitated by the clinic’s management.

      Recall that the embarrassment involving Zagoruyko occurred at the court hearing in the case of 36‑year‑old Sergey Plastinin, who "died due to the doctors' fault," where the doctor had been called as a witness. In court she learned from documents submitted by the hospital that she had allegedly signed the minutes of the medical commission that asserted Plastinin’s death was due to natural causes, despite "the provision of quality and timely medical care."

      Moreover, according to official documents, Lyubov Mikhailova had every chance of ending up in the dock, since on February 5 and 6, as the on‑duty physician, she had treated the patient brought to the hospital by ambulance.

      On February 5, 2023, Sergey Plastinin, who was suffering from an intense headache, was brought to the hospital but was discharged home by neurologist Tatyana Trushkova with a diagnosis of "positional vertigo." On February 6, when the patient's hands and tongue began to go numb, Trushkova’s diagnoses — unconfirmed by tests and MRI — rained down: poisoning, osteochondrosis, epilepsy.

      When clinic staff began running into the ward to gawk at the dying young man, Sergey’s wife, Ekaterina, called the air ambulance herself (because the tired neurologist was lying in the doctors’ lounge covered with her fur coat). The Kirov medical team warned: "Stroke. We may not be able to get him there..." Falling into a coma, Sergey clung to life for another ten days and died of "progressive brain edema in connection with an acute cerebrovascular accident in the form of ischemic infarction (four foci)."

      Having reviewed the official documents submitted by the hospital, Lyubov Zagoruyko denied her participation in the medical commission meeting and her "personal acquaintance with Plastinin," claiming that her signatures had been forged and that Trushkova received the pay for the hours allegedly worked by her. And when the court case of Smirnov, a participant in the special military operation who was denied timely access to the commission to confirm his disability, repeated almost identically, Lyubov Mikhailovna turned to the court. Two cases concerning "forged signatures" were separated into a distinct proceeding.

      It is hard not to notice that the chief physician of the Verkhoshizhem Central District Hospital may be using every means, up to and including breaking the law, to ensure that Zagoruyko "does not interfere with the courts’ ability to reach the correct decisions with her truth." However, Zonov’s attempts to "demotivate or remove the doctor who tells the court the truth" can hardly be described as lawful or "particularly well thought out," since the "medical repressions" obviously apply only to Lyubov Mikhailovna.

      For example, during the investigation and trial of Aleksandr Skrobants, now the former deputy chief physician and a practicing psychiatrist and narcologist in Kirov and Verkhoshizhemye, Sergey Zonov not only provided a glowing reference for his subordinate but never doubted that the doctor, detained "for drugs," could continue working at the hospital as a narcologist. Moreover, the hours spent in interrogation and in court were counted as his "working time."

      Equally astonishing is Sergey Zonov’s conspicuous friendliness toward the hospital’s surgeon (pediatrician) Oleg Polovnikov, against whom hearings are being held in the Soviet District Court following a complaint by a patient he assaulted. And instead of the fact that a doctor beat his patient receiving "federal publicity and condemnation," the proceedings are being handled under the classification "top secret." Oleg Sergeyevich’s "personal time" spent traveling to Sovetsk and back and in the courtroom is also counted as his working hours.

      By the way, five other female employees of the Verkhoshizhem Central District Hospital, who are still being summoned to court in the Plastinin and Smirnov cases, appear before the courts during working hours without any loss of pay or threat to their jobs.