Saint Petersburg
Officials launched a probe into ventilators used at some Russian medical facilities after five coronavirus patients, including three attached to the breathing machines, died in a fire at a Saint Petersburg hospital.
Officials said the blaze on the sixth floor of the Saint George hospital appeared to have started when one of the ventilators in its intensive care unit short-circuited.
Health authorities said they would check the hospital’s ventilators and those at a Moscow clinic where a fire killed a woman last week.
The head of the Saint Petersburg hospital’s intensive care unit, Vladimir Sulima, told reporters that four of the patients had died in the ward and three of them were connected to ventilators.
“The staff did everything they could… We feel guilty towards their relatives,” Sulima said. He said they had received the Russian-made breathing machines in early May, adding that the hospital would not be using them until the probe was over.—AP
