Hospital: Navalny has metabolic disorder

Navalny has been in a coma since yesterday morning in intensive care and on respiration. His team suspects he’s been poisoned. Navalny’s personal physician says the metabolic disorder was caused by that poisoning.

Over his condition and diagnosis is great uncertainty. The head doctor said this morning that there were five different kinds of diagnoses possible and that it could take another two days before there was a definite answer. It was later reported that no traces of poison had been detected in Navalny’s blood and urine.

Chemical

Navalny’s team later said on the basis of statements by a police officer that a substance had been found so dangerous that people around him had to wear protective suits.

German doctors in hospital

At the airport of Omsk a plane landed this morning with doctors from Germany to pick up Navalny and bring it to Berlin for treatment. They have now examined him.

The German organization that sent the doctors, Cinema for Peace, heard from them that Navalny is stable enough to be transported. A spokesman for Navalny says that too.

The doctors at the hospital won’t let him go because his condition wouldn’t allow it. According to them, his condition has improved a little, but Navalny would still be in mortal danger.

Pressure Kremlin

Navalny’s chief of staff Leonid Volkov thinks the doctors have been pressured by the Kremlin. “They were already preparing the papers for his transfer when they suddenly came up with that totally different explanation.”

The Kremlin denies any interference. “The decision lies with the doctors who treat him,” says a spokesperson.

The rescue plane was an idea of Pussy Riot activist Pyotr Verzilov. Verzilov is a good friend of Navalny and an experience expert. Two years ago he too suddenly became seriously ill. He also had poisoning symptoms.

Cinema for Peace then brought him to Berlin and after a two-week treatment in the Berlin Charité Hospital he was back to his old self. The cause of his illness was never established with 100 percent certainty, but according to the Berlin doctors everything indicated poisoning.

Deliberately slow down

Verzilov suspects the Russian doctors that they are deliberately delaying Navalny’s transfer so that any poison in his blood can no longer be proven. “No one was left with me at the time for the first 24 hours, no toxicological tests were carried out and no diagnoses were made. Exactly like Navalny is now.”

He points out that it is crucial to have a blood test as soon as possible in order to determine the cause of the disease. “They wait until his blood is pure again, then he may leave,” says Verzilov.

Brandel and Macron

Also the German and French governments want to help. Yesterday both Chancellor Merkel and President Macron said that Navalny is welcome in their country to receive medical care there.

Today Germany repeated this offer. “The most important thing now is to save Navalny’s life,” said a spokesman for Merkel. Germany requires that a request be made first. Whether that must come from Navalny or someone else is unclear.