Parents win compensation after daughter's death at Moscow clinic
The parents say the medical center never apologized for their daughter«s death.
The family of a 22-year-old woman from Ufa obtained compensation for moral damages after their daughter died in one of Moscow«s largest clinics. The woman was sent there for treatment from Ufa. In the hospital, she underwent surgery, after which serious complications arose. For a month, doctors tried to stabilize her condition but failed. The girl»s relatives maintain that there were chances to save her and that the doctors were negligent in their work. They went to the Investigative Committee and the court. UFA1.RU provides details.
The Loginov Center opened in 2013 on the site of a gastroenterology research institute.
Problems Since Childhood
The Moscow clinic where the surgery took place is a modern medical facility.
Arina Sarvarova from Ufa was promising: a gold medal at school, a red diploma (honors degree) from university, a master«s degree, studied IT, and planned to become a programmer like her father. She also studied at a music school, worked part-time, and volunteered.
As UFA1.RU reported, the girl«s mother Rimma Sarvarova said that in childhood, Arina was found to have a polyp — a cluster of cells on the inner surface of the duodenum. A pediatric surgeon at that time removed this small benign tumor.
However, doctors to this day do not fully understand what causes it. There are suggestions that the cause is inflammation or a congenital tissue development defect. Polyps tend to recur, but in childhood, Arina was told this was unlikely. Nevertheless, she periodically underwent check-ups.
In July 2022, after another examination, the woman was again diagnosed with a polyp in the duodenum. She turned to the clinic of Bashkir State Medical University (BGMU), where she was advised to monitor the growth for a year. In September 2023, the polyp had not disappeared, so a professor from BGMU recommended its removal in Moscow. Such an operation could not be performed in Ufa due to lack of equipment.
A suggestion was made — the Loginov Moscow Clinical Research Center (Loginov Center) in Moscow, which specializes in internal organ surgeries. An appointment there took place in February 2024. After consultations with doctors and examinations, on 18 February, the woman was admitted to the hospital and prepared for surgery, after which she became significantly worse, and a month later she died.
10 Million for a Death
In May 2024, after a publication by UFA1.RU, the Moscow Investigative Committee opened a criminal case under the article on provision of unsafe services resulting in death by negligence. In November, the case was closed due to the absence of a crime event.
It is noteworthy that it has become more difficult to bring doctors to criminal responsibility: at the end of 2024, a note was introduced into the article stating that its scope does not apply to medical workers. This is the so-called «decriminalization of medical care». Thanks to this note, cosmetologist Liya Miftakhova avoided trial.
After the Investigative Committee«s refusal, Arina»s parents went to court, demanding 10 million rubles (about $111,100 at current rates) in compensation for moral damages from the Loginov Center. Also named as defendants in the lawsuit were BGMU clinic and a private hospital from Ufa. The mother and father were convinced that a series of gross errors were made in the capital that led to their child«s death. The three defendants disagreed with the lawsuit, and the prosecutor»s office considered that 600,000 rubles would be enough for the parents.
UFA1.RU learned details of the further course of events from the published court decision, which lists the circumstances in detail.
The operation was performed on 19 February — it lasted about 9 hours: the inflamed part of the duodenum and tumors were removed.
On 20 February — condition severe, connected to an artificial kidney machine, transferred to intensive care. Doctors prescribed examinations, painkillers, and other medications.
But after the first operation, Arina developed complications: pancreatitis due to bowel resection, which caused bleeding, infection, and multiple organ failure.
21 February — condition severe, temperature 38°C (100.4°F), damage to the head of the pancreas, various inflammations. 25–29 February — several more interventions, examinations, consultations with the director of the medical center. It should be noted that the operations were performed not through a traditional abdominal incision (called «laparotomy access»), but via punctures (laparoscopy).
Nevertheless, they became constant: Arina was taken to the operating table almost every day. It was already about saving her life: doctors mainly placed drains to flush and remove purulent accumulations, removed dead tissue. All this time, the patient was on a ventilator, artificial kidney, received plasma and red blood cell transfusions to combat bleeding, and antibiotics were changed because certain drugs were ineffective.
It turned out that the hospital did not have the necessary antibiotic; it could only be supplied in a few days, so the parents bought it at their own expense (spending about 100,000 rubles, or $1,100 at current rates).
On 21 March, Arina«s temperature rose to 39.2°C (102.6°F), showing negative dynamics. That same day, surgeons performed sanitation of the retroperitoneal space. On 22 March, specialists from the Center for Critical Conditions were called in — they dealt with blood clotting problems (coagulopathy) and performed transfusions.
On 23 March, her condition sharply worsened: doctors noted bradycardia. This is when the heart beats very slowly — less than 60 beats per minute. In some situations, the pulse can drop to 30 or lower, and in such cases, the heart stops. Subsequently, the patient«s cardiac monitor showed cardiac arrest — clinical death occurred.
The 22-year-old woman was immediately resuscitated. They tried to save Arina for almost an hour but failed. The heart did not restart. Doctors declared biological, irreversible death.
What the Expert Examination Showed
In court, the center assured that its work had been checked by the Moscow Department of Health, which recognized the care provided as complete and correct (citing numerous documents, recommendations, and instructions).
«The defendant believes that there is no causal link between the death and the provision of medical care at this medical center,» the court presents the center«s position.
The court ordered an expert examination. Specialists studied only documents; the parents refused an autopsy, citing religious beliefs.
Nevertheless, the experts say that the observation strategy chosen in 2022 was correct, and the referral of the patient to Moscow was acceptable because the Loginov Center had extensive experience with such diseases. Thus, no violations were found in the actions of BGMU and the private clinic from Ufa.
The experts say in the report that the patient was examined in a timely manner, tests were taken, necessary preoperative examinations were conducted, and the prescribed medications were appropriate.
«No defects were identified in the provision of care to the patient in terms of surgery during the diagnosis and treatment of acute postoperative pancreatitis. Against the background of the progression of acute postoperative pancreatitis, the patient developed sepsis,» the expert examination results are presented in the court decision.
Sepsis is when an infection (in this case, bacteria) takes over the entire body, affects multiple areas at once, and leads to organ failure (multiple organ failure). Sepsis causes poor blood clotting, making it harder to stop bleeding. Experts say that is exactly what happened in Arina«s case.
Nevertheless, the expert examination did find some defects in the doctors« work. For example, when Arina could not eat on her own, she was prescribed «therapeutic nutrition» (nutritional support), but for the entire month she was fed incorrectly, without calculating the required amount of proteins and calories (this was done only once — before the main operation). The experts concluded that this aggravated the course of the disease, but there is no causal link with death.
«The identified defects in treatment aggravated the severity of the disease course (acute postoperative pancreatitis) by reducing the body«s compensatory capabilities; however, there is no direct causal link between them and the occurrence of the adverse outcome in the form of death. The cause of the adverse outcome in the patient was acute postoperative pancreatitis,» the court decision states.
At the same time, the expert examination noted that even if the doctors had perfectly adhered to the treatment strategy, the likelihood of developing pancreatitis after surgery would still have been high. This was influenced by several factors: first, the childhood surgery, and second, the patient«s first-degree obesity.
«There is currently no specific prevention for this complication. It was detected in a timely manner, and appropriate measures were taken to control it. The patient was warned about possible complications, including the possibility of an adverse treatment outcome, through the informed voluntary consent signed on 18 February 2024,» the experts« position is presented (slightly edited for simplicity without loss of meaning).
The cause of death was specified shock and benign neoplasm of the duodenum. Shock in this context is a collapse of the entire body, when it, as a whole, stopped working and malfunctioned.
The expert examination also found violations in documentation. Records of another patient appeared in Arina«s chart, and some documents lacked doctors» signatures.
The doctors made a number of errors, but the complications did not result from these. The Loginov Center, as follows from the court decision, did not deny the identified violations. Yet the court stated that the medical organization did not take all necessary measures for treatment.
«Taking into account the volume and nature of the moral suffering of the plaintiffs, the high degree of distress, the degree of guilt and the volume of violations committed by the tortfeasor, the presence of an indirect causal link between the identified shortcomings in the provision of medical care and the patient«s death, the court considers it possible to recover from the Loginov Moscow Clinical Research Center compensation for moral damages,» the decision states (slightly edited without loss of meaning).
The amount — 600,000 rubles for both parents. They also recovered material damages — about 100,000 rubles, which were spent on purchasing the concentrate for preparing the antibiotic (the one that was not available at this clinic). Another 46,000 rubles — for a lawyer.
«She Had No Strength»
The medical center did not even argue — it provided no evidence of staff innocence and did not appeal the decision. In addition to compensation to the parents, it will have to pay a state fee and costs for the judicial examination — totalling nearly 170,000 rubles (about $1,900 at current rates).
Arina«s mother, in a conversation with UFA1.RU, explained that she did not agree with the decision and filed an appeal with the Supreme Court of Bashkortostan.
«Because the expert examination from Orenburg showed that during the operation they made mistakes, and in intensive care they finished her off, underfed her completely. She had no strength to resist, to fight the disease. They [the medical center] didn«t even apologize,» Rimma Sarvarova asserts.
In the appeal, the medical center partially admitted guilt, but regarding the poor feeding, it stated that this was done «to avoid a fatal outcome». The girl«s mother considers such wording cynical.
She maintains that the doctors did not inform her of her daughter«s serious condition during the entire month she was in intensive care. Moreover, the woman blames the doctors for removing Arina»s gallbladder, though the published verdict contains no confirmation of this.
«For a month in intensive care, doctors tried to fix what happened during the operation. Even in the criminal case, during interrogations, doctors only talked about what they did in intensive care and not a word about what happened during the operation,» the girl«s mother wrote in her speech for the court (available to the editorial board).
The family filed a complaint in court against the refusal to terminate the criminal case. It will be considered at the end of July.
