Payments from the clinic or from the administration?
A few days ago, St. Petersburg Medical Committee announced that victims were paid in case of industrial barium poisoning at the clinic in Siqueiros, where patients had a contrast-enhanced stomach x-ray. Recall that 8 people died as a result of poisoning and more than 20 people were injured.
Thus, regardless of the severity of the damage to health, the victims will receive 300 thousand rubles. Persons with disabilities are entitled to pay 500 thousand rubles. The families of the victims had to transfer one million rubles to each of them. This is stated in the agreement that the victims received from the clinic.
Interestingly, in mid-February 2022, St. Petersburg governor Alexander Beglov announced additional financial assistance for the victims from the city administration – and the same amount. socialbites.ca, among other things, received a copy of the agreement for victims, which regulates the amount of payment, but not, as expected, from the city authorities, but from the clinic itself. The document bears the signature of Gennady Biderman, acting chief physician.
In particular, paragraph 4 lists six reasons why a clinic refuses to pay compensation.
For example, those who plan to file an additional lawsuit for moral damage in court in the future deprive themselves of this opportunity if they sign an agreement.
“In the event that monetary compensation for damage to the life or health of the patient is withdrawn from GKDC No. 1 on the basis of a court decision or a friendly agreement, as well as a request for monetary compensation, compensation may be refused. Compensation for the damage done to the life or health of the patient is being evaluated by the court.
Can victims get more?
in komzdrav media He explained that the payments to the victims would indeed come from the medical center in Siqueiros, but this is a city institution.
“If victims get compensation first and then file a lawsuit, they are not deprived of compensation. The document refers to those who have applied to the court before,” he said.
However, jurists do not agree with this explanation.
“This document talks about compensation for non-pecuniary damage to health – it has nothing to do with and is not limited to the payments the government originally announced. These are different funding sources and purposes. It is also possible that demanding money from the city administration in court will not work – the important fact is whether a document on the appointment of payments from them has been issued, ”said the author.
According to the lawyer, victims must first receive a payment from the government and only then settle the issue with the clinic about compensation for non-pecuniary damage. Because if an agreement is made with the medical center, victims will no longer be provided with other means. This point is written in the contract itself.
“There is a two-way agreement in this contract – that is, officially people agree that the clinic will compensate for the moral damage done to health. And government money are one-time payments sent as unrequited assistance,” he said.
Criminal lawyer Maxim Kalinov reminded that the claim for compensation for moral damage is guaranteed by law for each victim.
“I think you could take that money and sue the clinic and if they were asked to return the money they would still win the court. “I would have prepared a law for the victims, in which I wrote down all the points that did not fit them and demanded that it be changed in this way,” he said.
In particular, the contract must state that this is an aid and not compensation for moral damage from those responsible for the damage.
“He was killed a painful death”
The deal proposed by the clinic infuriated the victims of the case. Alexandra, mother of many children whose husband died after the procedure, personally called the vice president of the medical center, apologized and asked her to sign the document.
“I believe they have decided to force us to sign some kind of reconciliation agreement under the pretext that this is just compensation. It says so in the document. I talked to this time [Бидерманов]He came in tears and begged me to sign this paper. Although I understand very well through the court that after the signing of the contract you will not get anything from them, ”the director said.
Alexandra, like many other victims, refused to sign the agreement – according to her, a person’s life cannot be valued at a million rubles.
“The man lived, he had plans, dreams. These [врачи из клиники на Сикейроса] He was killed a painful death – dying in front of his children. They did not help him in any way, they forced him to drink this poison. Why didn’t they stop the procedure when her husband got sick? He was there for another hour, none of the workers asked if he was okay,” the woman got angry.
In addition, the addressee of the publication stated that Gennady Biderman, the acting chief physician, has been talking about this for 30 years in a conversation with him. (the institution has been operating since 1988.) clinical purchased barium not intended for medical procedures. in February “socialbites.ca” He also wrote that according to those familiar with the victims’ investigation, half of the clinic’s staff were aware of the false origin of barium.
“They always took barium from nowhere, but apparently purified it, but this last batch – they bought the rest at the factory, it was ordinary, not washed from salts. That’s why people were killed, ”stressed Alexandra.
Prove damage
At the same time, according to other victims, the clinic has not yet apologized, and such an agreement was sent to St. Petersburg journalists learned. They are also outraged by the fact that victims who are officially recognized by the investigation have to prove that they have been harmed.
“I and some victims will not receive this payment under these circumstances. Beglov announced this as additional assistance to the victims, and as a result the city handed it over to the headquarters in Siqueiros, everyone started calling it a payment to the victims. On what basis does the center decide who is considered a victim, not on the basis of the investigation, and asks for some results of the examination if they do not have the right to contact us without a lawyer?” said Victoria, whose mother died of barium poisoning in December 2021.
Sharing the same view, Anna confirmed that Victoria had said the victims had to prove the harm, while her mother also had a contrast X-ray and died almost a day later. According to him, the authorities and the medical center are trying to resolve the case in this way to avoid litigation with the victims.
“Beglov announced that an additional payment will be made to victims and their families.
And now it turns out that this is precisely voluntary compensation for damage, which means that the center has settled everything in front of the court, and people should not have any more questions about it. This is what you don’t want.
Therefore, for myself, I decided not to plan to apply for any payments in the near future. And even if I wanted to, as I understand it, everything is still not so simple there – we must manage to prove that we have the right to receive them, ”said the author.
At the same time, with a question about how and when it will be possible to receive the promised additional assistance from the city government, the woman returned to St. He explained that he had already applied to the administration of the governor of St. Petersburg – he was not answered. “He promised not only financial aid, but also psychological and legal aid. But so far nothing would have hurt me at all, except for the help of a psychologist, ”Anna concluded.
socialbites.ca, St. for clarification. Petersburg administration; At the time of broadcast, city officials did not respond to the broadcast’s request.