- Click to share on Facebook (Opens in a new window)
- Click to share on Twitter (Opens in a new window)
- Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in a new window)
- Click to email a friend (Opens in a new window)
Why have coronavirus cases increased so much in Russia? 1:54
(CNN) - Three front-line healthcare workers have mysteriously fallen out of hospital windows in Russia in the past two weeks, increasing public attention to the working conditions of doctors and medical professionals amid of the coronavirus pandemic.
Two of those health workers are dead and one remains hospitalized.
The three incidents, which are being investigated by Russian police authorities, have sparked intense discussion in the Russian press and on social media.
Alexander Shulepov, an ambulance doctor in Voronezh, a city some 320 kilometers south of Moscow, is in serious condition after falling from a hospital window on Saturday.
Local state television, citing regional health officials, said he fell out of the second-floor window of the Novousmanskaya hospital, where he worked and was receiving treatment after testing positive for coronavirus.
Shulepov was hospitalized for coronavirus on April 22, the same day that he and his colleague Alexander Kosyakin posted an online video saying that Shulepov had been forced to continue working after testing positive for coronavirus.
Kosyakin had also previously criticized the hospital administration for the shortage of protective equipment on his social media and was questioned by the police for allegedly spreading false news.
Police have not responded to CNN's request for comment.
Novousmanskaya Hospital said in a statement that Shulepov had been removed from his shift as soon as he informed the hospital administration of his positive diagnosis and was offered hospitalization in the infectious disease ward.
Three days later, Shulepov retracted his previous statements, saying that in his video with Kosyakin, he was "overwhelmed by emotions." The second video that Shulepov recorded featured Igor Potanin, the chief physician at Novousmanskaya Hospital, who said his medical staff has sufficient protective equipment.
Shulepov was the third health worker in Russia to fall out of a window in the past two weeks.
Last Friday, Elena Nepomnyashchaya, the interim chief doctor of a hospital in the Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk, died after spending a week in intensive care, the regional department of the Ministry of Health said in a statement.
Local television station TVK Krasnoyarsk reported that Nepomnyashchaya allegedly fell out of a window during a meeting with regional health officials, during which they discussed the possibility of turning the clinic into a coronavirus facility.
Nepomnyashchaya was reported to have opposed these changes due to the lack of protective equipment in the hospital.
The regional health department of the Ministry of Health denied the allegations in a statement, adding that the hospital is in "reserve" for patients with coronavirus and its staff has been trained and equipped. The hospital did not respond to CNN's requests for comment.
On April 24, Natalya Lebedeva, head of the emergency medical service in Star City, Russia's main training base for cosmonauts, died in a hospital after a fall.
The Federal Biomedical Medicine Agency hospital, which says it treated her on suspicion of coronavirus, issued a statement that "a tragic accident occurred," without giving further details.
The hospital did not respond to CNN's request for comment.
In the statement, the hospital said: "She was a true professional in her field, saving human lives every day!"
