Today, on 17 October 2017, the Nizhegorodsky Regional Court upheld the ruling of the court of the first instance in the part of the volume of compensation for moral damage to Denis Fomin, the husband of Irina Fomina who died in 2014 after the Caesarian surgery in the Dzerzhinsky Perinatal Center. The ruling came into legal force.
(Photo: Denis Fomin and Irina Fomina)
As we have previously reported, on 2 October 2014 Denis Fomin from Dzerzhinsk (Nizhny Novgorod region) applied to Nizhny Novgorod office of the Committee Against Torture for legal support – he believed that his wife died shortly after childbirth due to medical malpractices.
Denis explained that his wife’s pregnancy developed normally and nothing foreboded the tragedy. Not least because Dzerzhinsky perinatal center, where his wife was giving birth, meets all modern standards. However, on the morning after the childbirth, when Denis called the doctors on the phone, they informed him that on 30 June 2014 his wife underwent the Caesarian operation. No-one informed him about the complications which developed after that. At noon of the same day when Denis telephoned the maternity clinic he was told that the young mother and the baby were feeling fine and were having rest.
According to Denis, he and his relatives tried to reach Irina on the phone, but in vain – her mobile phone was switched off. Irina’s mother went to the maternity clinic and witnessed her daughter in the state of unconsciousness being taken to the ambulance in order to be transported to the Emergency Care Hospital. After two days Irina was transferred to Nizhny Novgorod Regional Hospital named after Semashko. Doctors of this medical establishment were struggling to save the young woman’s life for almost two weeks, but on 16 July 2014 she died.
Four medical forensic examinations were performed with regard to this case. The conclusion of the decisive expert examination was that the death of Irina Fomina resulted from acute blood loss during the Cesarean section. In the experts’ opinion, the doctors of the Dzerzhinsky perinatal center failed to render an adequate medical assistance to Irina Fomina. They wrongly injected an obstetrical medicine, and, in the experts’ opinion, there were no indications for Caesarean section — Irina Fomina could have given birth without it. In addition, in the experts’ opinion, the doctors failed to fully compensate for the blood loss during the post-surgery period and injected some blood plasma which was contraindicative for Irina. These factors, in their totality, led to the patient’s death. Experts considered that if the doctors’ actions had been adequate, Irina could have been saved.
As a result, two doctors of the Dzerzhinsky Perinatal Center – birth attendant Evgeniya Balandina and anesthesiologist Ilya Trofimov – were charged with crime under part 2 Article 109 («death by negligence due to deficient performance of professional duties»). After the confirmation of the indictment the case was sent to court.
At court defendant Ilya Trofimov asked to dismiss the criminal case due to expire of the period of limitations. Federal judge Dmitry Kaschuk satisfied this motion and dismissed criminal prosecution of Mr.Trofimov.
Defendant Evgenia Balandina declined the dismissal of the criminal case, considering herself completely innocent.
On 18 October 2016, the Dzerzhinsky City Court announced Evgenia Balandina guilty of the death of Irina Fomina and sentenced her to a year and a half of imprisonment. Despite the opinion of the state prosecutor the court refused to apply additional punishment for Balandina in the form of revocation of the right to practice medicine. Due to the expiry of the period of limitation for the institution of criminal proceedings Evgenia Balandina was released from the sentence.
She was not satisfied with the verdict and appealed against it, insisting on her acquittal, however, on 7 February of this year the Nizhny Novgorod Regional Court upheld the ruling of the court of the first instance, and the convict’s complaint was dismissed. On 30 May of this year Denis Fomin, with the assistance of the lawyers with the Committee for the Prevention of Torture, applied to the Dzerzhinsky City Court of the Nizhny Novgorod region with a lawsuit on compensation of moral damage inflicted to him by the death of his wife. The claimed sum amounted to five million rulbles.
On 19 June of this year judge of the Dzerzhinsky City Court Oksana Yurova partially satisfied the claims under Denis Fomin’s lawsuit, having decided to collect nine hundred thousand rubles from the Dzerzhinsky Perinatal Center as a compensation for moral damage.
The defendant disagreed to such a ruling and complained about it to the appellate court.
Today, the Nizhny Novgorod Regional Court, having examined the appellate appeal of the Dzerzhinsky Perinatal Centrer, upheld the ruling of the court of the first instance in the part of the volume of compensation for moral damage awarded to the victim. The ruling came into legal force.