The silence of the guys: in Yakutia, a possible substitution of a baby who died 17 years ago is being investigated

The Investigative Committee of Yakutia organized a procedural check on the possible substitution of a newborn child in one of the maternity hospitals of the republic. The story resembles a bad TV series — in 2008, a local resident, Daria Luzina, gave birth to a child who died three days later, allegedly "from a lack of iron and calcium." At that time, Daria was still a child herself, and she closed her eyes to the numerous inconsistencies in the behavior of obstetricians and in medical documents under the influence of stress. But recently, she, now a mother of many children, suddenly found out that the child she had buried then could be someone else's. Despite the improbability of the situation, the investigators met Daria halfway: they ordered the exhumation of the remains of a baby who died 17 years ago in order to conduct a genetic examination. Details of the unusual story can be found in the Izvestia article.

"Died of calcium and iron deficiency"

Investigators in Yakutia have ordered an investigation into the treatment of 32-year-old Daria Luzina. The woman believes that she became a victim of miraculous deception by doctors 17 years ago. In 2008, Daria gave birth to a child in the Yakut village of Khandyga, who died three days after birth. According to the doctors, it was a girl.

Daria could not be with the baby in the first minutes of his life — she was under anesthesia during the operation, and after the cesarean section, the baby was taken to a separate room. She gave birth in the maternity hospital at the central district hospital of the village of Khandyga. The very next day after giving birth, the doctors told the woman that the baby was born with numerous pathologies and therefore would not survive.

"It was very strange, I was monitored throughout my pregnancy, and no pathologies were detected on the ultrasound," Daria told Izvestia. — I felt great, I've never been in a hospital. In addition, throughout my pregnancy I was told that I was going to have a boy, but in fact I was told that a girl was born.

Daria Luzina (left) gives an interview to a correspondent of Izvestia at the Yakutsk maternity hospital

Photo: IZVESTIA

Daria first saw the child when she was given his body. The girl was buried, and the doctors wrote in the certificate that the baby died of calcium and iron deficiency. At least, that's how Daria puts it: she doesn't have the medical certificate in her hands. The woman gave it to the registry office, on its basis she was given a death certificate.

Lack of iron in newborns very rarely leads to their death, Marika Shakaya, head of the newborn department at the Moscow Regional Research Institute of Obstetrics and Gynecology named after Academician V.I. Krasnopolsky, told Izvestia.

"Calcium is a macronutrient that plays an active role in many biochemical processes, but in healthy newborns, its level usually recovers on its own by the end of the first week of life," she noted. — Its deficiency rarely leads to fatal outcomes.

Hypocalcemia, according to the doctor, is mostly asymptomatic. But with a marked decrease, it can lead to respiratory arrest and seizures.

The death of a particular child with multiple malformations due to a lack of calcium and iron is possible, Marika Shakaya emphasized. Deficits, she concluded, could worsen the newborn's already serious condition.

— Then I tried to find out the reasons, I asked to show me the documents, but they told me: "It just happens," said Daria Luzina. — And I believed the doctors.

"Instead of hands, there are chicken paws"

Perhaps the woman would never have thought about the causes of her child's death if her five-year-old daughter (Daria has three children in total) had not been diagnosed with a genetic disease.

— I thought: what if that girl of mine also had a genetic disease? — the woman explained her train of thought. — I went to the hospital and asked the doctor who delivered me to give me medical documents. She told me that I didn't need to read them because they were scary.

After the woman's insistent requests, the doctor sent her a photo on WhatsApp, allegedly of her personal card, which listed all kinds of deformities of the child.

"It said that the child had "chicken paws" instead of hands, a snarl instead of a mouth, and the intestines were turned out,— Daria described the horrors of what she read. — I couldn't believe my eyes, because the child I was burying didn't have any teeth and looked completely normal on the outside.

This further reinforced the woman's suspicions.

Izvestia decided to help Daria Luzina find out the truth and went with her to Yakutia (now the woman lives in Sochi). The obstetrician who delivered the woman still works in this hospital, but she was not happy to see her and closed herself off from persistent visitors in the office.

The chief physician of the maternity hospital told Izvestia that he had nothing to do with the situation, since he did not work there at the time. Daria has not been able to obtain the original documents, even upon written application.

Boy or girl

The Izvestia correspondent went with Daria to the hospital morgue, where a pathoanatomical examination of the child was to be conducted. They talked to the nurse who worked in 2008. According to her, the child Daria described had never been in the morgue.

The woman showed the archive log of records, in it Daria found the date of the child's death — October 9, 2008. It said that the dead child was a boy.

— There was also the signature of my mother, supposedly, this signature is fake, — says the heroine. — I've been silent for a long time, but now I intend to go all the way.

Daria contacted the Investigative Committee, where they began checking and ordered an exhumation and genetic examination.

"A genotyposcopic examination has been ordered for the seized biomaterials, interviews are being conducted, the applicant's arguments are being checked, and other verification actions are being carried out to establish all the circumstances of the incident. A procedural decision will be made based on the results of the audit," the investigators said in response to a request from Izvestia.

Daria Luzina

Photo: IZVESTIA

The experts interviewed by Izvestia differed in their assessment of how informative such an examination could be. Forensic expert Alexander Aulov is sure that the remains of the baby buried 17 years ago are no longer there.

"The child has not yet formed bones on the third day of life," he stressed.

If the child's bones remain, it will be possible to establish a relationship based on them, forensic expert Yuri Kirilenkov told Izvestia. But, according to him, it's not worth hoping for much.

"The information content of an exhumation depends on many factors, including the burial conditions — location and depth," he explained.

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But exhumation, despite the high risks of missing remains, is still worth it, said Alexander Aulov.

"There could be cranial bones left, they can be used to establish a relationship," he explained.

The real cause of the baby's death can no longer be established, the expert believes. According to him, visually and biologically it is unlikely to be possible to confirm the presence of developmental abnormalities in the child.