Russia ‘fall’ epidemic

A third Russian doctor has plunged from a hospital window amid complaints about mounting pressures involved in treating coronavirus patients, according to a report.

Dr. Alexander Shulepov, 37, suffered critical head injuries after appearing in a video in which he claimed he was ordered to work despite testing positive for the disease, East2West reported.

Shulepov and his colleagues had warned about the shortages of personal protective equipment.

Lying in a hospital bed, Shulepov later appeared in another video in which he retracted his allegations — although there were suspicions that he was forced to make his statement.

The doctor was gravely injured Saturday when he plummeted from a secondfloor window at Novousmanskaya district hospital, the news site reported.

Shulepov had been filmed with Alexander Kosyakin, a paramedic who had been called by police under suspicion of spreading misinformation after complaining about PPE shortages.

“Ambulance doctor Alexander Shulepov is next to me, he is just confirmed COVID-19,” Kosyakin says in the video. “The chief doctor is forcing us to work. What do we do in this situation?”

In another case, coronavirus-stricken Dr. Natalya Lebedeva, 48, fell to her death from the sixth floor of a Moscow hospital after co-workers said she was unfairly blamed for the spread of the virus at her clinic. And Dr. Yelena Nepomnyashchaya, 47, suffered fatal injuries after falling from a window at her Krasnoyarsk hospital after colleagues said she had complained about an “acute shortage” of PPE.