The Kyivskyi District Court of Odesa has imposed preventive measures in the form of personal recognizance on doctors of the Odesa private clinic Odrex, Vitaliy Rusakov and Maryna Bielotserkovska, who are accused of improper performance of professional duties by a medical worker that could have caused grave consequences for the patient and led to the death of businessman Adnan Kivan. In addition, the court suspended Vitaliy Rusakov from his position, UNN reports.
At a hearing on Friday, the court partially granted the prosecution's motion and chose preventive measures for the defendants Rusakov and Bielotserkovska in the form of personal recognizance until August 12 inclusive. Meanwhile, Bielotserkovska participated in the hearing via video link.
It is worth noting that the prosecutor's office demanded in court that the doctors be placed under house arrest as a preventive measure.
Furthermore, the court temporarily suspended Rusakov from his positions as head of surgical department No. 2, surgeon, and endoscopist at LLC Medical House "Odrex" until August 12. It is worth noting that in his blog, Rusakov reported that despite the charges, he returned to performing surgeries on patients in April and has managed to conduct 45 operations since then.
Following this, a break was announced in the preparatory hearing until 2:30 PM on June 18.
As a reminder
Both medics are charged with improper performance of professional duties that caused the death of a patient (Part 1 of Article 140 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine). Maryna Bielotserkovska was dismissed from Odrex immediately after the patient's death.
It is known that for the last six months of his life, Adnan Kivan was treated at the "Odrex" clinic. His treatment was handled by oncologist Maryna Bielotserkovska. She was in constant contact with the businessman's relatives and provided recommendations regarding his further treatment. Meanwhile, the patient was operated on by a long-time friend of the Kivan family – Vitaliy Rusakov, to whom Adnan Kivan gifted a renovated apartment in a newly built residential complex and a brand new Lexus car, according to journalist Zoya Kazanzhy.
The investigation believes that while providing medical care, the medics made significant errors, as a result of which the patient developed sepsis, which, against the background of the oncological process, led to death. The indictment was submitted for consideration by the court on its merits.
The Prymorskyi District Court of Odesa was supposed to proceed to one of the key stages in the case of possible medical negligence by the doctors of the private clinic Odrex – the examination of medical evidence and hearing from an oncology expert. It was at this stage that the parties were to receive a professional assessment of the accused medics' actions and the compliance of the treatment with medical standards. However, instead of analyzing the medical component, the process switched back to procedural disputes: the defense of one of the accused doctors initiated the transfer of the case to another court. Lawyers for the victim's side called such actions a delay in the proceedings, while the accused himself is conducting an active public campaign on his own social media.
The Odesa Court of Appeal granted the defense's motion and decided to transfer the criminal proceedings regarding Rusakov and Bielotserkovska from the Prymorskyi District Court to the Kyivskyi District Court of Odesa. In connection with this, the hearing of the case began from the start.
Apparently realizing that the doctors will not be able to avoid criminal liability, the defense is resorting to the tactic of delaying the trial, likely hoping that the case will be closed due to the expiration of the statute of limitations.