The explosion near Severodvinsk: doctors are in a panic because of the 'radiation' patients, the Kremlin denies the danger

On August 8, an explosion occurred at a military training ground near Severodvinsk during a test of a rocket launcher. The press service of the administration of Severodvinsk reported a short-term increase in radiation background. But the doctors who brought the victims were not told that patients are a source of radiation.

Фото: Depositphotos

In total, 90 people came into contact with infected people, and there may be more people who are at risk. It was told Bi-bi-si two employees of the Arkhangelsk Regional Clinical Hospital who are aware of how assistance was provided to the victims.

Doctors agreed to talk with the Russian BBC service on condition of anonymity. They explained their desire to communicate by the fact that, firstly, they were afraid for their health, and secondly, they did not want this situation to happen again.

“We don’t want to be the initiators of a “revolution,” but most of all we don’t want, God forbid, next time they bring us not three, but ten people, and also hide the information,” said one of them.

“The picture of radiation damage developed by the hour”

Three victims, according to the BBC's interlocutors, were sent to the Arkhangelsk Regional Clinical Hospital, and three more to the Semashko City Hospital (Northern Medical Center named after N.A. Semashko), where there is equipment for treating radiation victims.

Three victims were taken to hospital in a “stable, serious condition,” BBC sources said. They were taken from the training ground by air ambulance helicopters. The doctors who accompanied the victims realized that they had probably received a significant dose of radiation.

The injured were brought to an emergency room, they were examined by doctors, and then sent to the operating room in order to provide assistance (the sources did not speak about the nature of the injuries).

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“At 12 o’clock in the afternoon the radiation doses became known, and at 16:35 they were admitted to the hospital,” the BBC’s interlocutors told.

About an hour after the patients were taken to the hospital, the doctors realized that the victims had radiation sickness.

“The picture of radiation damage developed hourly. The radiation dose was very large. Tests are taken and you can see how this sprout dies. This means a very large dose of radiation,” they said.

As both interlocutors of the BBC noted, even after it became known about the infection of patients, not a single employee of the hospital stopped giving them assistance. Doctors had to come up with protection on the spot. For example, they found respirators in the helicopter crew protection kit.

What is happening, one of the interlocutors of the BBC described as chaos.

Фото: Depositphotos

“I felt terrible stress”

The regional clinical hospital in Arkhangelsk consists of several old buildings and one relatively new seven-story building. This is where the emergency room is located - and it was here that the victims were brought on August 8th.

When they arrived at the hospital, it was not closed because there was no information about the radiation infection of patients. Other patients remained in the emergency room, new ones arrived.

“We have a perinatal center here, a seven-story building. All the most difficult births take place there. All the most severe patients from the region gather in this hospital. It was in this intensive care unit. The emergency room was closed about an hour after these patients [injured during the testing site] were admitted. When they came into contact with everything that was already possible,” said two doctors.

When it turned out that the patients received a dose of radiation, the doctors decided to leave them in the operating room so that the rest of the building would not be infected. As a result, they visited only the emergency room, the corridor and the operating room.

On August 9 at eight in the morning the victims were taken to Moscow, two BBC interlocutors said. They know nothing about their condition. On Thursday, the Rosatom press service stated that those injured in the emergency in the Arkhangelsk region were recovering.

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After the victims were taken to Moscow, decontamination was carried out in this part of the hospital.

“Decontamination was carried out by the military, Rospotrebnadzor and military services of Severodvinsk. This was on August 10th and 12th,” one of the BBC’s interlocutors said.

“Our nurses, they needed advice, these are simple village people, they grabbed these bags and carried them out in armfuls, and not one day - two days. And they all emit beta radiation, 20 centimeters, 5 centimeters! Well, at least someone would give the command: guys, stand, don’t touch,” one of the BBC’s interlocutors is indignant.

According to another interlocutor, the hospital staff experienced severe stress, many doctors are in serious psychological condition. The reason for this condition, he called precisely what was hidden from the staff for the sake of keeping state secrets information that was relevant to their safety.

“They were just walking around depressed, there was terrible stress, everyone had this depressing state. They just took you and abandoned you... And after that this terrible feeling suddenly falls on you,” the source told the BBC.

“This is complete chaos on the part of our officials,” the doctor added.

During the decontamination, the military took all the clothes of the victims, a stretcher. Dismantled the bath in the waiting room.

“Because she was so sick that decontamination would not have changed anything,” said one of the doctors.

The staff of the regional hospital do not have one hundred percent confidence that the hospital was completely deactivated.

“How can you imagine processing a CT scanner table? Or an operating table with these glands? This is when the surface is smooth, everything is washed there? Washed! Everything seemed to work out. But this, just like that, there was a leak of blood, a leak of soap solution...”, the BBC’s interlocutor said.

Part of the equipment, which was not subject to deactivation, was taken out on a military truck, says one of the BBC interlocutors.

Фото: Depositphotos

How many people could contact?

Information on the consequences of infection is still extremely scarce. The Moscow Times reported that FSB officers demanded that doctors who had direct contact with the victims sign a non-disclosure agreement. The same was confirmed by two interlocutors of the BBC.

As a result, during the evacuation process, the victims from the training ground contacted the rescue services, the crews of medical helicopters, the doctors who accompanied them, and the ambulance crews. BBC interlocutors do not know about the condition of these people.

In total, about 90 people contacted the victims, two employees of the Arkhangelsk Regional Clinical Hospital told the BBC. None of these people were told that they were in contact with people exposed to radiation.

The Ministry of Health only two weeks after the accident at the training ground said that the doctors who examined the victims did not reveal excesses of permissible levels of radiation exposure.

TASS, citing the press service of the Ministry of Health of Russia, reported that specialists from the Federal Medical and Biological Agency from 8 to 16 on August continuously examined the 91 medical worker of the regional clinical hospital in Arkhangelsk.

“As a result, in no case was an excess of permissible levels of radioactivity detected,” the department assured.

According to one of the BBC interlocutors, only 21 people from 57, who were on duty that day on the hospital, were taken to Moscow for examination. The rest were examined in Arkhangelsk.

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This survey was not comprehensive and was more like “profanation in order to calm people down,” one of the interlocutors said in a conversation with the BBC.

The results of the medical examination will not be handed over to them personally, but through the structures of the regional ministry of health, sources say the BBC.

Russian Presidential Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov said on Thursday that it is necessary to establish which doctors are saying that they were not informed about radiation contamination of victims after the explosion near Severodvinsk. “You need to know specifically what kind of doctors they are. In this case, one cannot speak impersonally,” Peskov said.

There is no public information about the health status of civilian specialists who were at the training ground at the time of the accident and could have been exposed to radiation.

“Everything was broken, nothing was done”

According to doctors, actions in the event of radioactive contamination are prescribed in the “Organization and Tactics of the Medical Service” (OTMS) section of the military medical service.

“These are very tough documents. Where should decontamination be carried out, by what means, what kind of control. It may not be single,” said one of the BBC’s interlocutors.

According to them, doctors along with the equipment could be called to the scene, providing them with adequate protection.

“The first cordon of decontamination should be the outbreak. The dose there can only be reduced; it is impossible to completely decontaminate it in the outbreak, of course. The second is the arrival of a helicopter at Vaskovo [airport near Arkhangelsk]. The third cordon is in front of the barrier of the regional hospital, if you have already decided [to take you there],” the doctor said.

If after these events the patients continued to “fear”, they would have to be sent to the Semashko hospital, where there is appropriate equipment, and teams of doctors from the regional hospital would arrive there.

“This is OTMS, these are the basics, everyone knows this. And everything was violated, nothing was done about it,” a source told the BBC.

The reasons why the victims at the military facility were taken to a civilian hospital are unknown. It is unclear who made this decision.

As ForumDaily wrote earlier:

• Russian Ministry of Defense 8 August tested a jet engine, culminating in the explosion and death of several military and civilian specialists of the Russian Federal Nuclear Center. According to a note from the Institute for Problems of the Safe Development of Nuclear Energy, the sensors of the Automated System for Monitoring the Radiation Situation in Severodvinsk recorded an increase in radiation background lasting about 20 minutes.
• White House National Security Advisor John Bolton accused Russia of stealing technology of hypersonic weapons. A statement was made when Bolton commented on the incident. The head of the White House, Donald Trump, said that the United States “learned a lot” from the explosion at a military training ground in Russia.
• After the explosion in Russia disconnected 4 radiation monitoring stations, and thousands of gas masks are bought for the population. Two more Russian radiation monitoring stations - one in Chukotka and the second in Altai - stopped transmitting data a few days after the explosion in a nuclear center near Severodvinsk. Earlier it was reported about the suspension of data transmission at stations in Dubna and Kirov.

Read also on ForumDaily:

Advisor to Trump: a weapon exploded near Severodvinsk, the technologies of which Russia stole from the United States

The explosion and emission of radiation at the landfill in Russia puzzled the United States: what did Russian nuclear scientists

Accused each other of an arms race: what happened at a meeting of the UN Security Council on missile tests

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