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- Caesarean torment: what is the cause of child deaths in the Novokuznetsk maternity hospital
Caesarean torment: what is the cause of child deaths in the Novokuznetsk maternity hospital
Novokuznetsk Maternity Hospital No. 1, where nine babies have died since the beginning of January, has received warnings from Rospotrebnadzor several times for late transmission of emergency alerts about outbreaks of infectious diseases, Izvestia found out. In addition, the court suspended the work of the obstetric department, the operating unit and the laundry of the hospital due to gross violations of sanitary standards. In 2024, the Kemerovo Region had one of the highest infant mortality rates, the sixth highest among all regions of the country. The cause of the current deaths of children could be staphylococcus or a viral infection of the respiratory tract, according to the interviewed doctors. About how the obstetric care system is organized in the region and what happened in the medical institution is in the Izvestia material.
Mass death of children in Novokuznetsk maternity hospital
The central office of the Investigative Committee (IC) of Russia will conduct a criminal investigation into the deaths of nine infants in the Novokuznetsk maternity hospital No. 1. This was announced on January 13 by the head of the department, Alexander Bastrykin. The case was initiated under articles on negligence and causing death by negligence.
Currently, the medical facility is quarantined "due to exceeding the threshold for the incidence of respiratory infection in an obstetric hospital," its website says.
The mothers of the dead babies and their relatives told Izvestia about the situation in the hospital. So, Arina, a resident of the Kemerovo region, said that on January 10, her child died in this hospital. He was born on December 22 by emergency caesarean section, prematurely.
— I went to the hospital with severe swelling on my legs on the advice of an obstetrician-gynecologist from the clinic. As a result, they found some kind of virus, or not a virus, and had a caesarean section," Arina said.
The doctors then informed the woman that the baby was "a little sick" after giving birth.
— As the doctor initially said on the phone, the child had something with blood pressure, they started intensive care, - said the mother. — As a result, according to the doctor, his heart stopped. But we have a pathologist's report in our hands, which says that the cause of death is infection, not cardiac arrest.
According to Arina, she would not advise "friend or foe" to be in this hospital, because "the nurses there give injections without gloves, if you ask them for a pill, they won't give you a pill."
The sister of one of the women in labor, Ksenia, said that her sister Natalia went into premature labor in December, and the couple went to the nearest hospital as soon as possible.
— My sister was left alone in the delivery room, there was no doctor nearby. The child was caught by a woman who was putting on an IV drip, and she called the doctors. The baby was placed in an incubator for a week, everything was going well, they were discharged," she said.
Then, before the New Year, the hospital was quarantined.
— At first everything was fine, the child gained weight to 1280 g, ate well, but soon fell ill. They put him on a ventilator, and then they said he died of an infection," Ksenia said.
Maria also gave birth in December at this hospital, and now the baby is in intensive care. The woman told Izvestia that two weeks after giving birth, her child was diagnosed with an intestinal infection.
After the IC report, the maternity hospital officially announced that from December 1, 2025 to January 11, 2026, 234 newborns were admitted to the institution. Nine of them "did not survive." A total of 32 infants needed intensive care, 17 children were in extremely serious condition. Most of the sick children are premature, including those with extremely low body weight. The hospital doctors diagnosed them with neonatal or intrauterine infections (they develop in the first weeks after birth and during fetal development in the womb, respectively), and one child also has primary immunodeficiency.
"Four children remain under observation in the intensive care unit. Four children have been transferred to the Kuzbass Children's Clinical Hospital for treatment," the hospital said.
Currently, the institution does not accept new mothers. After all the patients are discharged, the hospital plans to close for routine disinfection.
What complaints did the inspectors have about the hospital?
Chief physician Vitaly Heraskov was dismissed from his post at the Novokuznetsk maternity hospital for the duration of all inspections, regional Governor Ilya Seredyuk said. According to him, on January 14, a group of federal specialists will arrive at the site to assess the work of the maternity hospital. Seredyuk also wrote on his Telegram channel that he had set the task for the Minister of Health of Kuzbass to "check all maternity hospitals and perinatal centers in the region for readiness for the most difficult cases."
There are only two maternity hospitals in Novokuznetsk. Women in labor with pathologies were sent to maternity hospital No. 1, as this medical institution has the necessary conditions for assistance in difficult situations.
According to the Unified Register of Inspections of the Prosecutor General's Office of the Russian Federation, 257 inspections have been conducted by various departments in relation to CCB No. 1 since 2016. Over the past two years, Rospotrebnadzor has issued two warnings directly in relation to the perinatal center — for the late transmission of emergency alerts about outbreaks of infectious diseases.
According to the law "On the sanitary and Epidemiological welfare of the population" and according to the requirements of the SanPiN, such notifications must be transmitted by a medical institution in an emergency mode within two hours, and then within 12 hours in writing. In September 2024, cases of conjunctivitis and dacryocystitis, as well as unspecified infections, were detected in two newborns at the perinatal center. The center transmitted information about the illness of the first child only on the fifth day, and the second — only a week later.
In March 2025, the medical institution reported the presence of chickenpox in three patients only three days later, pneumonia was detected in two patients five days later, and unspecified infection was detected in two newborns only eight and ten days later.
The claims from the departments also concerned the work of the polyclinic at the hospital. The inspectors examined complaints about refusal to provide or untimely medical care, and the requirement for patients to buy shoe covers from a vending machine in the absence of free ones. There were also comments from the inspectors about broken tiles, problems with the roof, and the presence of fungus due to humidity.
In November 2025, the local Ministry of Health discovered that the hospital had withdrawn the drug Ertapenem J from circulation only three months later: the order was received on January 31, 2025, and the hospital withdrew it only in April.
In 2021, the court suspended the work of the obstetric department, the operating unit and the laundry of the hospital for 14 days due to gross violations of sanitary standards, Izvestia found out. During the inspection, it was established that there was no special complex for newborns in the intensive care unit, and furniture that was not resistant to disinfection was used in the intensive care unit. In addition, work clothes were washed in the basement without separating the streams of clean and dirty laundry. Mold and damage were found in the laundry room.
The Ministry of Emergency Situations has also complained to the hospital several times for incorrect operation of the fire alarm system.
And in September 2025, the UK initiated a criminal case on causing serious harm to the mother's health after reports of an unsuccessful early birth in this hospital.
In June 2023, the maternity hospital held an auction for the purchase of medical equipment and repair of existing equipment for more than 63 million rubles, Izvestia found out. As a result, the institution acquired the equipment necessary for the care of premature babies and for resuscitation.
In addition, in 2025, the maternity hospital spent more than 1.6 billion rubles on the purchase of necessary goods, and in 2024 — 2.5 billion rubles. Some women in labor claim that the doctors worked on old equipment, and the condition of the wards was poor.
What could the babies have been infected with
Most often, newborns become infected with staphylococcus, obstetrician-gynecologist Vladimir Sursyakov told Izvestia. According to him, there are strains in hospitals that are extremely difficult to treat.
— Hospital strains are used to antibiotics, they do not die from them, so they are extremely difficult to treat. They are very aggressive and can hit anyone. If the immune system is weakened, like in premature babies, then these strains will hit it much faster and harder," the doctor explained.
You can get infected with staphylococcus through food, through an improperly treated wound, even a scratch, Vladimir Sursyakov added. A young mother should look to see if the child has a rash, if he has become more restless, lethargic, if he is eating poorly, taking a breast poorly — all this can be a symptom of infection. In this case, you should immediately show the newborn to a pediatrician.
— If you quickly identify infections, you can try to cure them. The problem is that hospital strains are difficult to diagnose and, in fact, there is nothing to treat them with. Every year, maternity hospitals are put on the sink with repainting of the walls in order to clean and sterilize the building as much as possible — just so that such things do not happen," said the obstetrician—gynecologist.
According to Vladimir Sursyakov, globally, a woman in labor cannot protect herself and her child from infections in any way, since the staff of the maternity hospital is engaged in medical manipulations. However, she can wash her hands, treat her breasts, and wipe some surfaces in the ward.
The necessary treatment should also be carried out in intensive care units. If there are problems with this, then bacteria can accumulate inside, for example, the tubes of a ventilator.
In addition, infants who died in the hospital could have contracted respiratory syncytial infection, a viral infection of the respiratory tract, says Zaur Khatshukov, a pediatrician at the Soft Medical Center clinic. This disease usually occurs as a mild cold, but in newborns it can cause bronchiolitis (inflammation of the small respiratory tract) and pneumonia.
— Due to severe respiratory failure, death may occur. However, children could have contracted other nosocomial infections — at the time or after birth. The infection can also be intrauterine, transmitted from mother to child. If it begins to manifest itself in the first 72 hours after birth, it can be considered intrauterine," the doctor told Izvestia.
What did Novokuznetsk residents tell us about the maternity hospital?
The women who gave birth in this medical facility in the past years have different memories of it. So, Larisa, a resident of the Kemerovo region, told Izvestia that a huge number of women in labor arrive at the 1st maternity hospital in Novokuznetsk, therefore the attitude of the staff towards them is "indifferent".
— I gave birth there five years ago. Previously, patients were sent to maternity hospitals in small towns, such as Osinniki and Myski, but they were closed. Now everything has completely fallen on the shoulders of doctors and midwives of two maternity hospitals in Novokuznetsk. It's the same story in Kemerovo," she said.
In 2020, another Izvestia interviewee was in the same hospital for preservation.
— Cockroaches, their waste products are everywhere in the wards, dust and hair like tumbleweeds, the sanitary staff is not particularly engaged in cleaning, — said the woman. — I was prescribed the drug without indications for it, I fainted in the hallway due to a drop in blood pressure after it. And there is not even ammonia in the nursing room, they did not give me any medications to normalize blood pressure.
A neighbor in the room of the Izvestia interlocutor had severe pain at night. Other pregnant women called for a doctor, but the girl lay without examination until morning.
But the doctor Alena Yakovleva, who gave birth to her son in maternity hospital No. 1 in 2020, has only good memories of him. She told Izvestia that her gynecologist recommended this institution to her — Alyona has one kidney, and the medical institution has a department of urology and a dialysis machine. A few weeks before the date of delivery, the woman began to have preeclampsia at night — her blood pressure increased significantly. She was urgently hospitalized, and in the morning she had a caesarean section, as there was a serious threat to the lives of the mother and child.
— The doctors worked like lightning. The anesthesiologist was hovering over me, afraid that I would fall into a coma. I understood that everything was sad, and I was very worried. But the caesarean went well," Alyona Yakovleva told Izvestia.
The mother and son spent six days in the hospital.
— The nurse came every day: she washed the floors and wiped the surfaces. As a medic, I appreciated it. There were no cockroaches, bedbugs, or dirt," said Alyona Yakovleva.
According to the patient, she, along with other mothers, also monitored the condition of the ward, they additionally quartered it.
Infant mortality in Kuzbass is on the rise
The annual infant mortality rate in Russia is now at a record low in its entire history — 3.5 cases per 1,000 newborns (3.5 ppm). This was announced in December 2025 by the Minister of Health of the Russian Federation Mikhail Murashko. In recent years, this indicator has regularly updated the historical minimum.
Izvestia analyzed Rosstat data on this indicator. Currently, data is publicly available only for January-February 2025. During this period, 10 babies died in Kuzbass, and in 2024, 16 over the same period.
At the same time, it was in 2024 that the region experienced a sharp increase in infant mortality. So, in 2023, it was 4.3 ppm (4.3 deaths per thousand births). According to this indicator, Kuzbass was "average", ranking among the regions at the end of the fourth decade. But by the end of 2024, the Kemerovo Region "broke out" into sixth place: the infant mortality rate jumped to 5.7 ppm (+32.5%). In total, 82 babies died in the region in 2023, and 100 in 2024.
The Irkutsk region showed a similar result in 2024 (5.7 ppm), but the growth there was about 18%. 114 babies died there in 2023, 129 in 2024.
Chukotka ranks first in this indicator. Infant mortality in this territory was 19.3 ppm in 2023 and 25.2 in 2024. But such figures are associated with a small number of residents. At the same time, a total of 10 children died in the region in 2023 and 13 in 2024.
And the highest annual growth rate was recorded in the Kaluga Region — by 76%: 2.9 ppm in 2023, 5.1 in 2024. These are 24 and 41 deceased infants, respectively.
The press service of the Ministry of Health told Izvestia that from 2023 to 2025, infant mortality in the Kaluga and Kemerovo regions "was and remains below the national average and has no upward trend."
"In addition, in the Chukotka Autonomous Okrug, according to operational data from Rosstat in 2025, infant mortality decreased by three times compared to 2024, and in the Kurgan Region from 2024 to 2025 decreased by almost 1.5 times," the department said.
They also reported that on behalf of the Minister of Health of Russia Mikhail Murashko, a group of specialists from the National Research Medical Center of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Perinatology was sent to the Kemerovo region to check the work of the maternity service. Kulakov and St. Petersburg Pediatric University. The group was headed by the head of Roszdravnadzor, Alla Samoilova.
Переведено сервисом «Яндекс Переводчик»
