Russian Woman Embalmed Alive During Surgery
27-year-old Ekaterina Fedyaeva was in hospital in her home city of Ulyanovsk, Russia, having routine surgery when she was given a formalin drip rather than a saline drip. Formalin contains formaldehyde – a chemical used to embalm the dead to prevent decomposition, while saline (saltwater) is used to provide patients with hydration.
Ekaterina suffered excruciating pain as a result of the formalin before falling into a coma two days later. Her heart stopped several times and she was placed on a life support machine, before being flown to Moscow hospital. Medics used a total of 52 different drugs in a desperate attempt to save Ekaterina before she was flown to Moscow hospital. Once at Moscow hospital, she awoke from her coma only to die due to multiple organ failure.
Her mother, Galin Baryshnikova, and husband, Igor, were with Ekaterina at the hospital while she had the surgery. They were initially unaware of the horrendous mix-up of saline and formalin, with her mother saying that the doctors knew about the formalin however did nothing to help.
“Her legs were moving, she had convulsions, her whole body was shaking. I put socks on her, then a robe, then a blanket but she was shivering to such an extent, I can’t even describe it.
No doctor came to see her although she was coming round from anaesthetic. And they knew very well that they washed up her body with a poison – and they did nothing to help…
Now I understand that formalin was simply eroding her body from inside. People who performed the surgery already knew that they infused something wrong. They needed to take some urgent measures – but they did nothing
I begged – ‘please help her, she is my only child’. I think they just wanted me to go away and to hide everything. For 14 hours after surgery she was living with this formalin and they did nothing.”
