Russian Doctor Critical After 50-Foot Fall During Call About Coronavirus Equipment Shortage

The head of a Siberian hospital is in critical condition after falling from a window during a call about personal protective equipment (PPE) shortage with the region's minister of health.

According to local reports, 47-year-old Dr. Yelena Nepomnyashchaya fell 50 feet from the fifth floor window of the Krasnoyarsk Regional Hospital for War Veterans on Saturday while she was on a call with Krasnoyarsk region Minister of Health Boris Nemik.

The Moscow Times noted an unnamed source reportedly said Nepomnyashchaya was opposed to converting another of the hospital's buildings for COVID-19 patients because of the PPE shortage and the lack in proper training.

Many Russian doctors have also reportedly quit their jobs due to the PPE shortage, while medical staff are concerned the shortage may be causing them to infect patients rather than help them.

However, according to Krasnoyarsk region government deputy head Aleksey Podkorytov, there could be other explanations for what happened than those stated in the media reports.

"So many things could have happened. It could have been because it was Spring, the overall stress, something in her family," Podkorytov said, according to The Sun. "There was nothing extraordinary happening at the time, just a routine conference call with doctors' reports. At the time [of the accident] there were no patients with coronavirus, yet the hospital was on high alert with all necessary equipment in place."

So far, an investigation on the incident is ongoing, but the preliminary findings showed no signs of a crime.

Nepomnyashchaya is reportedly in critical condition in intensive care.

After Nepomnyashchaya's fall, another Russian doctor also fell from the sixth floor window of the Federal Biomedical Agency, but this time in an apparent suicide amid allegations she failed to stop a COVID-19 outbreak at Star City.

According to a report by The Daily Mail, Dr. Natalya Lebedeva was directly involved in treating the Star City's COVID-19 patient zero, and the disease then spread to the other health workers "linked" to her.

Because of this, Lebedeva was reportedly accused by her superiors of not taking the "sufficient measures" for the safety of her employees, thereby causing them to get infected. Lebedeva did not survive the fall.