In the case of Svitlana Huk, who has been trying for six years to clarify the circumstances of her husband's death at the Odrex clinic in Odesa, a new medical examination has been appointed in Lviv. The widow places her main hope on it, as, according to her, the criminal proceedings are practically stalled, and the previously appointed handwriting examination has not yet been conducted. Read about the new stage of Svitlana Huk's struggle in the UNN material.
Six years after her husband's death, Svitlana Huk is trying to get an answer to a key question: what exactly happened during his treatment at the Odrex clinic? Despite lawsuits, examinations, and numerous appeals, the case has not yet come to a resolution.
It recently became known that within the framework of her civil lawsuit, a repeated medical examination was appointed in Lviv. Svitlana Huk, in a comment to UNN, noted that she is awaiting the results and places great hopes on this examination. After all, this is the widow's third attempt to get answers to her questions. The first two medical examinations appointed by the court were not conducted – she received rejections from Kyiv.
"According to my lawsuit, we managed to achieve the appointment of a medical examination. We asked for it to be conducted in Lviv, the court granted this motion, the documents have already been sent, so now we are waiting. I have high hopes for this examination, because I want the truth to be established," Svitlana Huk said.
At the same time, according to her, she sees no significant progress in the criminal proceedings.
"In the criminal proceedings, there is currently silence. The new investigator appointed to my case has not contacted me, I have not been called for any additional conversations. Also, the handwriting examination, which was appointed back in the autumn of 2025, has not yet been conducted," she noted.
Thus, after years of litigation, the case has again stalled at the stage of medical examinations.
As UNN previously wrote, Svitlana Huk's story began in 2019. Her husband, who had previously been diagnosed with a thymoma, had already undergone complex treatment in Israel. According to his wife, he underwent surgery abroad, 27 radiation treatments, and six courses of chemotherapy. The last course ended in April 2019, but his well-being did not improve, so the family decided to seek advice in Ukraine.
In June 2019, the couple came to the Odesa clinic Odrex with all medical documents and a complete medical history. At the clinic, the husband was additionally examined, after which the doctors gave the family extremely optimistic prognoses. According to the widow, the husband was consulted and operated on by cardiac surgeon Dmytro Turliuk, and among the doctors who accompanied the treatment was also the head of the intensive care unit Maksym Pavlovskyi. As Huk claims, the doctors convinced the family that after the intervention, her husband would have a chance to return to a full life.
"Turliuk was very optimistic, saying that there was every chance to return to a normal, full life. He even said a phrase that will forever be in my memory: 'We will even write a book about you,'" Svitlana Huk said.
The clinic also spoke about the risks, but the main emphasis was on the fact that the operation was technically possible and should be successful.
At the same time, the total cost of the patient's treatment also changed. As Svitlana Huk said in the documentary film "Wasp's Nest," at first the clinic named one amount, then another, and in the end, it was about $42,500. Separately, according to Svitlana Huk, she was informed about the need to purchase special biomaterial and involve a doctor from Belarus in the operation. For this, as Huk claims, the family separately handed over $2,500 in cash, and the family did not receive any receipts for the payment of this money.
On July 11, 2019, Svitlana Huk's husband paid for the operation and related services. The next day he was hospitalized. Later, as the widow claims, during the court hearing, she saw a record in the medical documents about allegedly eight blood transfusions on July 12, although, according to her, that day she was with her husband all the time and no such procedures took place.
The operation was performed on July 13. Until late in the evening, Svitlana was informed by the clinic that the operation was ongoing, and closer to midnight, she was told that her husband was in intensive care. The next morning, the doctors assured her that the operation was generally successful.
However, it almost immediately became clear that the operation did not go as originally planned. According to the widow, instead of an intervention through a lateral access between the ribs, as previously discussed with the patient, the doctors performed a full thoracotomy – essentially opening his chest.
Already on the evening of July 14, as Svitlana Huk previously told the UNN editorial office, she was informed about the deterioration of her husband's kidney indicators and the probable connection to an artificial kidney machine. At the same time, according to her, the doctors reassured her and assured her that this was allegedly "normal practice."
The next day, the situation changed dramatically. As the widow claims, on July 15, she began to receive calls from the clinic with messages about a serious deterioration in her husband's condition and talks about the need to pay extra for new medical services for the patient.
According to Huk, it was then that she was told that the patient had started having problems with his lungs, and she was also informed about the need to connect an ECMO machine, which allegedly was not available in Odesa and had to be delivered from Kyiv. However, later, when she began to study the documents, she said she found no confirmation of the fact that this equipment had been delivered, although the bills included UAH 240,000 for its use.
According to Svitlana Huk, during the last days her husband was in intensive care in critical condition and was connected to life support machines. She also claims that he had a heart attack between July 15 and 16, but the family was not informed about it – Svitlana learned about it later from medical documents. On July 24, 2019, Svitlana Huk's husband died at the Odrex clinic.
After her husband's death, Svitlana Huk sought a second medical opinion. According to her, the oncologists she consulted privately indicated that her husband should not have been taken to the operating table at all.
At the same time, pressure on the widow increased. According to Svitlana Huk, the Odrex clinic demanded payment from her for her husband's treatment, which cost up to UAH 100,000 per day. According to her words, when she approached the clinic's general director, Tigran Harutyunyan, and tried to explain that the family had already spent huge sums and had nothing more to pay, she was told to give up her apartment as payment.
Later, the clinic sued Svitlana Huk, demanding to recover about UAH 900,000 from her for medical services, not counting the $42,500 already paid to the clinic.
After her husband's death, Svitlana Huk managed to achieve the opening of criminal proceedings, but, as she states, the investigation has practically not progressed for years. In parallel, medical examinations were appointed within the framework of the civil lawsuit. The widow considers the first examination, conducted in Odesa, to be biased and to have taken place with violations. According to her, the repeated examination in Kyiv twice practically failed to be conducted, as the materials were returned from the capital without results.