Children are dying in hospitals, doctors are escaping responsibility. What are the statistics hiding?

The common saying, “Every doctor has his own cemetery behind him,” takes on a particularly grim tone if the doctor is a pediatrician and the patients he was unable to save are children.

The Russian government has approved a plan to implement demographic policy and support large families until 2036. Increasing the birth rate, quality and accessibility of medical care are among its most important points. However, criminal cases against doctors at the request of patients' parents are increasingly becoming public and make us think about the quality of the state's care for young patients.

The recent tragedy — the death of three-year-old Kirill , which was reported by the publication Muksun.fm, occurred right on the operating table in the district clinical hospital of Khanty-Mansiysk. The family moved to Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Okrug a year ago. Back in his homeland, in Astrakhan, the baby was diagnosed with cryptorchidism (the testicles did not descend into the scrotum), two operations were performed — in 2022 and 2023. They released him, assuring that everything possible had been done.

At the new place of residence, on the contrary, the doctors insisted on continuing the treatment and literally persuaded the parents to undergo a third surgical intervention. But, unlike their Astrakhan colleagues, before putting the child under the knife, they did not conduct the necessary diagnostics - an ultrasound of the heart.

The results of the first forensic examination state that the boy's death is directly related to the unfavorable administration of anesthesia against the background of myocarditis (inflammation of the heart muscle). The first, because the investigative bodies are waiting for a second one, which should be conducted in Irkutsk. According to the boy's father, Alexander, who filed a complaint with the Investigative Committee the very next day after the tragedy, the results will be ready within six months - a long queue!

A criminal case has been opened under the article “Causing death by negligence due to improper performance of professional duties by a person.”

The district clinical hospital where Kirill was operated on is not commenting on the incident, citing medical confidentiality. They only confirmed to fellow journalists that "the Health Department of the Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Okrug - Yugra conducted a departmental quality control of medical care provided to the minor patient." There is silence on the results of the inspection. At the same time, the Health Department has no information about the doctors being suspended while the cause of the child's death is being investigated.

Another case. The head of the Investigative Committee of Russia , Alexander Bastrykin, took personal control of the investigation into the circumstances of the death of a teenager as a result of an incorrect diagnosis in the Novosibirsk region. This was reported on August 11 by the department's TG channel .

"An article has been published in the media, containing criticism of the course of the investigation of a criminal case into the death of a 12-year-old girl as a result of a medical error. The article states that doctors were treating the schoolgirl for ARVI, while her meningococcal infection was progressing. The investigative bodies of the Investigative Committee of Russia for the Novosibirsk Region are investigating a criminal case on the basis of the elements of a crime under Article 109 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation ("Causing death by negligence")," the report says.

In production The mother of the deceased insists on a new forensic medical examination. Like Kirill's parents, she intends to obtain the truth and evidence of the doctors' guilt.

"The Chairman of the Investigative Committee of Russia has put the results of the investigation of a criminal case on the injury of a newborn under control. The media reported that in Novosibirsk, an infant suffered paralysis of the arm due to an injury sustained during childbirth. The boy's mother believes that there was a medical error. The circumstances of the provision of medical care to the newborn are being established by investigative bodies within the framework of a criminal case initiated under Part 1 of Article 238 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation ("Provision of services that do not meet safety requirements")," the same TG channel wrote on March 10, 2025.

Novosibirsk again. Earlier, social networks discussed the death of a one-and-a-half-month-old girl in a Perm hospital. The parents also believe that their daughter died due to a medical error. The mother of many children said that she gave birth to twins and one of the girls died, although she had no health problems. The woman appealed to Alexander Bastrykin with a request to look into the circumstances of what happened. And earlier, and earlier...

It is worth noting that there is little accurate and up-to-date publicly available data on child deaths due to medical errors in the Russian Federation; such cases are not singled out as separate statistics. We can judge the number of tragedies only by “indirect signs”. For example, according to information from Roszdravnadzor and the Russian Ministry of Health, in 2019 the total number of complaints about medical care (including all age groups) was about 70 thousand, but child statistics were not specified.

The editorial board of Novye Izvestia sent official inquiries to the Investigative Committee of Russia, Roszdravnadzor, and the Ministry of Health. Roszdravnadzor responded that it does not keep statistics on criminal cases initiated and advised asking the question to law enforcement agencies. The Investigative Committee, despite a detailed analysis of the tragedies that occurred on its official Telegram channel, forwarded the question to the Prosecutor General's Office. We have not yet received a response from the latter agency or the Ministry of Health.

The grief of parents who lose their children cannot be squeezed into the framework of statistics. The Internet is full of stories written as if from a carbon copy. A criminal case has been opened, investigative measures are being carried out. Sometimes, even at the verification stage, some doctors are fired from state hospitals and clinics. However, they immediately get jobs in commercial structures and continue to provide medical services under contracts, the amounts of which exceed their previous salaries. Or they are sent to work in the provinces, where there is a catastrophic shortage of doctors, on the principle: even this one will do, since he has a diploma.

Expert examinations in criminal cases are delayed, and the cases themselves, due to the investigation deadlines being exceeded, ultimately fall apart; only a few reach the verdict.

Two years ago, the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation noted that measures were needed to reduce the timeframes for conducting forensic medical examinations in criminal cases of poor quality medical care. Victims question the results obtained in the institutions of the Ministry of Health, believing that their conclusions may be biased. And in some cases, such concerns are justified, the agency said in its reports.

The parents of the deceased are convinced that the management of medical institutions is trying to shift the blame onto patients: they invent non-existent infections and genetic problems, attribute failure to follow medical recommendations or failure to provide complete information about the patient’s health status.

But there is another side to the problem. Grief-stricken relatives look for the guilty, write to law enforcement agencies again and again asking them to sort things out and punish. And… doctors are punished not only for what happens on the operating table or within the hospital walls, but also because of complications caused by the unfavorable course of the disease. It turns out that any negative outcome can be interpreted as unprofessionalism or inattention?

Every tenth patient in the world dies due to problems in diagnostics, according to data provided by Health Minister Mikhail Murashko. At the same time, the main diagnostic error is hidden in the communication of doctors with colleagues (20%). For example, in the chain "polyclinic - hospital".

As with the data measured in ppm, the announced 5% of medical errors attributable to polyclinics are only insignificant at first glance. Let's leave aside emotions and the fact that each error is linked to the health and quality of life of a specific person. Let's look at the numbers. According to the minister, Russians visit polyclinics more than 1 billion times a year. 5% of 1 billion is the number of medical errors.

At the same time, almost every fourth case of medical error (24%) is related to the patient's behavior. Some are in no hurry to seek medical help, others do not follow the instructions. The most common reasons also include a lack of medical information (clinical data and justifications) and the human factor: excessive workload on health workers.

Medical errors made in treating children are costly. Much more costly than might initially appear when the focus is on the grief of a particular family.

Demographic experts predict a decline in the birth rate in the Russian Federation in the coming years, despite large-scale propaganda of childbearing. Women born in the 1990s have entered active childbearing age; their number is 1.7 times less than that of mothers born in the 1980s. And the fear of being left without qualified medical care with a sick child in their arms does not contribute to childbearing.