Trail of clues key to survival of ex-spy, daughter

LONDON — It has been one of the great mysteries of the poison attack on a former Russian spy and his daughter in England: How did the two survive the Soviet-era nerve agent Novichok, thought to be one of the most deadly chemical weapons ever created?

It was fast, decisive action by British medics and physicians — aided by police investigators and government experts in nerve agents — who quickly diagnosed the threat.

Still, the medical team thought the pair would not make it.

On the afternoon of March 4, first responders had no idea what they were dealing with. Finding Sergei Skripal and his daughter, Yulia, slumped on a park bench in the town of Salisbury, medics suspected an opioid overdose.

Yulia, 33, appeared unconscious, witnesses said. Sergei, 66, was staring into space. Later, investigators said they believed the Skripals were poisoned with Novichok, probably at their front door.

Lorna Wilkinson, the nursing director at Salisbury District Hospital, told the BBC that the first clue that it was not a drug overdose was when Sgt. Nick Bailey, a police officer and first responder, was admitted to the emergency room with similar symptoms.

“There was a real concern as to how big this could get,” Wilkinson said. The hospital and police did not know whether this was a targeted attack or a broader, indiscriminate accident — or even a terrorist attack, with an unknown poison.

Wilkinson and the medial team at the hospital spoke with BBC Two’s Newsnight in detail about the case for a program that aired here this week.

“Have we just gone from having two index patients having something that actually could become all-consuming and involve many casualties?” head nurse Sarah Clark said to the BBC. “Because we really didn’t know at that point.”

Another clue in those early hours was when police learned that the elder Skripal was a former Russian spy and double agent living in retirement, openly, under his own name in Salisbury.

The medical team realized that the pair were exhibiting symptoms typical of organophosphate poisoning — the substance used in pesticides and in nerve agents.

Victims of organophosphate or nerve-agent poisoning can present with pinpoint-size pupils, vomiting, drooling and tears, followed by muscle spasms, seizures and cardiac arrest.

“When we first were aware this was a nerve agent, we were expecting them not to survive,” Stephen Jukes, an intensive-care consultant at the hospital, told the BBC.