Care home: what could have led to the mass poisoning of pensioners in Vidnom
Those responsible for the mass poisoning of elderly people in a boarding house near Moscow, located in the village of Drozdovo, near Vidnoye, face up to 10 years in prison, lawyers believe. The number of people poisoned has already reached 54, 45 pensioners have been hospitalized, and three have died. The court suspended the work of the organization for three months, and a criminal case was opened on the provision of services that do not meet safety requirements. The victims told Izvestia that they never liked the food in the boarding house, it could be cooked in the basement. And the institution itself, where more than 70 guests lived, was located in a village without central sewerage and running water.
What happened at the boarding house
On December 19, in the village of Drozdovo near the city of Vidnoye, a mass poisoning occurred at the Dolgozhitel private boarding house for the elderly. There were 72 people in the facility, 54 of them were hospitalized, three died. The age of the victims varies from 74 to 94 years.
According to Izvestia, the guests began to feel unwell after breakfast. The elderly endured increasing pain all day, and only in the evening did the boarding house staff call an ambulance. When asked what the pensioners were fed, they refused to answer the journalists in Dolgozhitel.
— Every five minutes, ten, an ambulance comes in. Flashing lights all around. They're driving, driving, driving," a local resident told Izvestia about what happened outside the boarding house on Friday evening.
The Investigative Committee and the Department of Rospotrebnadzor in the Moscow region are investigating the causes of mass poisoning. A criminal case has been opened under the article on the provision of services that do not meet safety requirements.
Employees of the GSU IC are conducting investigative actions as part of the investigation into the criminal case of poisoning of the boarding house guests.
"Investigators and criminologists of the regional Investigative Committee of Russia conducted an inspection of the boarding house, seized the necessary documentation, and also took samples of food and dishes," the regional office of the Investigative Committee reported.
Interrogations of the institution's management and guests are also being conducted.
The boarding house's activities have been suspended for 90 days — this decision was made on December 20 by the Vidnovsky City Court of the Moscow region. As follows from the court's message, the poisoning of the guests occurred due to violations of the law committed by the management. Patronage LLC was found guilty of violating sanitary and epidemiological requirements.
Izvestia sent a request to the regional department of Rospotrebnadzor regarding the possible causes of the incident, but no response had been received at the time of publication.
Living conditions in the "Long-lived"
Patronage LLC was registered in Moscow in 2021. The company operates in the field of medical services, one of the areas of activity is residential care. In 2024, the company's revenue increased by 51% compared to 2023 and amounted to 3.1 million rubles. Net profit increased by 26% to 378 thousand.
The standard cost of accommodation for an elderly person in the "Centenarian", according to the official website, ranges from 1300 rubles per day in a five—bed room to 2100 rubles in a double room. Assurances are also published here that round-the-clock care is provided for the guests of the boarding house, the administration takes care of the organization of their leisure time. However, the footage taken in the house after the incident shows that, for example, in one of the rooms there is an extra bed right in the middle of the room, and this is not a comfortable bed for a pensioner, but an ordinary cot.
The Izvestia film crew also noticed that the boarding house's trash cans were overflowing, which could indicate possible sanitary violations.
According to the organization's website, the boarding house provided five balanced meals a day, "which satisfies the body's needs for proteins, fats, carbohydrates, and trace elements," and "low-fat meat and fish are used for cooking."
However, patients who have been admitted to hospitals say that the food at the boarding house was not as good as it is described on the official website.
— About the food: I've never liked it. I always said that sooner or later someone would get poisoned, and that's big trouble," said one of the victims.
She also suggested that the sausages and dumplings they were fed "could have been made in the basement" of the house.
People who live near the boarding house say that there were no problems or conflicts with the institution. But please note that the three-storey (two residential and a large basement) boarding house was located on a site intended for individual housing construction and, according to the documents, was probably a private house, and not a medical institution.
— People buy plots for residential housing, then instead of a private house they build this kind of house, which they call a boarding house. There is no sewerage system, we have no central water supply, and there are no medical and obstetric stations in six villages... No wonder this happened," said one of the locals.
What threatens the owners of the "Centenarian"
In such cases, the director general of the organization and officials responsible for catering are most often held accountable, said judicial lawyer Lyubava Trofimova. Suppliers may also be involved if proven guilty on their part.
"The investigation will need to distinguish the cause of death from the general serious condition caused by age and chronic diseases," she said.
According to the article on the provision of services that do not meet security requirements, the perpetrators face up to ten years in prison, added Veronika Polyakova, a criminal lawyer and managing partner of the Business Legal Group Bar Association.
According to lawyers, investigations of such cases take a long time.
—In cases of mass poisoning with a large number of victims and examinations, 6-12 months of investigation is actually a common practice," Lyubava Trofimova noted. — It can take from several months to two years or more from the receipt of a case in court to the verdict in such cases.
How to behave in case of poisoning
Intestinal infections most often do not require treatment and resolve on their own against the background of sufficient drinking, compliance with the regimen and symptomatic therapy prescribed by a doctor, explained Olga Goryacheva, gastroenterologist at the Soft Medical Center clinic.
"But there is a group of patients who require closer attention and for whom intestinal infection is more likely to have a number of complications, sometimes, unfortunately, fatal," the expert added.
This group includes infants and the elderly over 65 years of age, due to their digestive and immune system characteristics, as well as additional concomitant and worsening conditions of acute diseases.
Therefore, according to her, people over the age of 65, especially those with complicated other diagnoses, should immediately consult a doctor if they have symptoms of an intestinal infection.
"It is especially important to see red flags and note increased unmotivated fatigue, weakness, weight loss, refusal to eat, increased frequency of stools that cannot be stopped, fever for no apparent reason, blood in the stool, vomiting," she said.
Such patients may be prescribed therapy by a doctor, including antibiotics and other drugs. In no case should you let the course of an intestinal infection take its course.
Переведено сервисом «Яндекс Переводчик»
