The young man in the photograph is Arman Krmoyan. Just a couple of months ago, he had an ideal wife and family. Arman had met Suzanna Badalyan years ago when she was studying at the International Relations department of the university named after H. Atcharyan. They fell in love, got married after a while and departed for their honeymoon.
“Suzanna was an energetic and lively girl and she loved living her life a lot. She was able to seize each second of her life. We were enjoying the good life together as a family. I was so happy…” says Arman. The only thing that Arman was able to do for his wife Suzanna was to buy her a white dress, a white grave and a white “sheet for the grave” because Suzanna died on April 14 due to the non-professionalism of doctors while she was giving birth to her child. Arman found his 28 year-old wife on the operational bed in blood. Many have asked to Arman to publish this story, however, his pain has been so much that he has preferred to not say a word. Finally, Arman decided to tell us about the tragic event that happened to his family so that the ones guilty can be punished and so mothers like Suzy can be protected against doctors that just care about the money.
I loved Suzy
Five years before the wedding, Suzanna’s father’s friend recommended that the family clean the girl’s organism by using plants. Before using medicinal plants, Suzy was suggested to go through a check up. During the study, doctors state that there is something on one of Suzy’s kidneys. Meanwhile, Suzy does not feel any pain and considers herself as perfectly healthy. Doctors recommend going through an operation and get rid of the thing on the kidney. According to the doctors, if the operation was not done, Suzy would live for not more than one year. Her relatives do not wish to take her to the operation and they prefer that Suzy lives one year; thus they don’t take the risk. Despite what the doctors said, years pass and Suzy feels perfectly fine. Five years after the doctor’s studies, Suzy meets Arman and falls in love. Suzy tells Arman about her situation before marriage. “We were in love and even if I believed what the doctors had said and was certain that there was a short period of time for her to live, I would still marry her because I loved her. But if you got to know her, you would see how lively she was and you could not tell that she was in danger of dying. She felt great. She was very healthy.” Soon, Suzy got pregnant. Arman takes her to a consultation with the gynecologist. Suzy did not have any problems with her pregnancy. After the consultation, it turns out that Suzy’s kidneys are fine and she will give birth the same way as all women do. Their first child, Harut, is born.
They do a Caesarean section in the urological department
Suzy gets pregnant again in 2004. She starts to feel pain in the stomach area during 8 month pregnancy and she starts to get fever. This time doctors suggest doing a Caesarean section, reasoning that the embryo is growing and causes pain as it touches the kidneys. They reason that Suzy’s pains will stop after giving birth by the Caesarean section. Arman takes Suzy to the hospital named after Margaryan so that the doctors there can do the Caesarean section. Since the nurse did not know anything about kidneys, suggests that Arman first take his wife to the urological department of the medical center in Erebuni where the doctors there will check up on Suzy’s kidneys and then do a Caesarean section. Arman tells us: “The nurse told me that a friend of hers works there-urologist Yervand Harutyunyan and he is a professional. Let her get checked up, come here and we will do the Caesarian section.” Unfortunately, we went to Yervand Harutyunyan. My wife told him which part of her body hurts. Yervand injected some tranquilizer or glucose in drops. My wife felt better after 10-15 minutes,” says Arman. But when the couple wanted to go back to the Margaryan hospital, head of the urological department Yervand Harutyunyan suggested that the doctors keep Suzy at their hospital rather than at Margaryan’s. Arman remembers: “Yervand said to me ‘Arman, why do you have to go all the way back to Margaryan’s. Let her stay here. We have a great maternity ward here, a good gynecologist and professionals…’ He was so convincing and gave such a detailed description of their facility that we agreed. He told me that the Caesarean section is done after giving a narcotic. They would tranquilize Suzy first, cut the part that they need to cut, take out the child and then, after a month, they would look at the kidney and if needed they would take out the extra thing. He said that they would do the Caesarean in the morning and if Suzy feels the need they would do the second operation after that. After the x-ray in the morning he said that the vein close to the kidney had widened and they predict that it was dangerous because if they cut it, it will cling to the heart, the heart chamber will close and can cause death. When the doctor said that, Suzy said told the doctors not to touch her kidney but to do a Caesarean section so that she could give birth.” Both the couple and the relatives agree to do a Caesarean section and don’t even think about the second operation. However, when Yervand Harutyunyan saw the patient’s kidney problem, he tries convincing the couple to keep Suzy at their facility knowing that the husband is ready to do spend all the money he has to keep his wife and child healthy. Arman remembers the doctor’s indifference of the doctors with pain. During that whole time, not one of the doctors has consulted with Suzy or asked how she is. When Arman told Suzy about the doctors’ proposal to do the second operation, Suzy asked Arman and her relatives to tell the doctors not to do the kidney operation. At that time, Arman’s friends had called from Germany and told him that Suzy can come to Germany for the kidney operation. Arman told Y. Harutyunyan not to do the kidney operation because he will take Suzy to Germany for the operation in case of need. Urologist Y. Harutyunyan said: “Why do you have to take her to Germany? We have all the professionals, we have technology and medicine and we have rearmed our equipment.” “Now I know that you have to do a Caesarean section at the maternity ward, not the urological department. I did not know that the only place for giving birth by Caesarean section is the maternity ward. For me, all white robed men and women are doctors that don’t understand many things. I found out that later. Suzy had a bad feeling and told me ‘Arman, please don’t let them touch my kidney’. She was crying because no doctor was asking her for her opinion. They did not have permission granted by Suzy and her relatives, much less a signature.”
“Till death do us part”
They laid Suzy on the operation bed and took her to the urological department so that they could give birth to the child by Caesarean section. Arman was holding Suzy’s hand and was encouraging her before giving birth to his second child. Arman tells her: “Suzy, we made a promise to each other in church that we would be together till death do us part. I did not want her to feel alone. She got happy by hearing that and that gave her the strength that she needed.” The doctors took Suzy to the operation room to do the Caesarean section. According to the agreement, there shouldn’t have been a second operation and the doctors were not supposed to touch the kidneys. Twenty minutes later, someone came out of the operation room, running at a 300 meter distance holding a baby in his hand. Everyone congratulated Arman for his second child. “They took me to see the child. I took a picture of him with my cell phone so that I could be the first to show Suzy. The doctors came out and gave him a list of drugs to buy. I ran to get them, then they told me to get a plasma and two packs of blood. I asked why they needed those things and they told me that they were moving on to the second operation. I told them that we had agreed not to do the second operation. The doctors claimed that the Caesarean section had been done successfully and that they felt that they must do the second operation. Two hours pass by and I get no response. Then, the doctors came out and left without saying a word. I ran after them and asked ‘What’s wrong doctor?’ The doctor said: ‘Arman, sorry but her heart stopped beating’. I said: ‘What? Did the trump explode?’ He says: ‘Maybe it is just a minor injury. Don’t worry. We have turned on an artificial pump so that her heart can function. We’ll turn it off and maybe it can pump on its own.’ I was in shock. I didn’t understand what was going on. They were telling me some weird things. I told them that I wanted to see my wife and they said that I couldn’t enter the room. I could not control myself, went into the operation room and saw that there was no pump turned on. Suzy was lying on the table in blood; she looked like she was dead for 4 days. I can not describe in words what I felt at that moment. I can see it in my mind even now. It was horrible. What happened to my wife, my friend? What did they do to my new family?”… Twenty-eight year old Suzy died, but her seven month old child Hrant lives.
“Am I crazy?”
The next day, Suzy’s relatives go to the Erebuni morgue to take the corpse home. The mortuary doctor says that he has not received Suzy’s body. The doctor told Arman: “What more can I say? I am not crazy to receive a corpse. Go talk to the doctors.” The doctors at the hospital said the following to Arman: “Why are you worrying? If you want, we can send the body to the morgue in Masiv or the one in “Lech Komisya”. Arman assured himself even more that the reason that Suzy died was because the doctors at the hospital wanted to “earn more money” by doing the second operation. He decided to go to the forensic medicine investigation center located on Heratsi street. The doctors worried about this decision and made a suggestion to Arman: “Why are you going there? You have to go to the forensic medicine center, bring a sanction and lose time.” Arman said: “What are you talking about? I lost my wife. Now you are talking to me about losing time?”
Arman appealed to the “Central” community prosecutor’s office. According to the law, the doctors had to appeal to the Erebuni prosecutor’s office so that they could register the death and conduct a forensic medicine investigation. After receiving the corpse, there had to be a death certificate so that a funeral ceremony could be organized. Arman could not even get a cemetery without a death certificate. Arman took the initiative of organizing his wife’s morgue with the help of the center for forensic medicine investigation center of the Ministry of Health of Armenia (Heratsi street). To this day, Arman has not been explained the reason as to why his wife died and keep saying that they are not ready to give an answer. The morgue gave a death certificate and wrote the following for a preliminary reason for death “Sharp health problems.” The cemetery wanted a death certificate but the morgue could not give a death certificate without stating anything about the death. Arman had lost his mind at that moment and the only thing that he had to do was to get one “piece of paper” in order to bury his wife.
After a short while, Arman found out that the “Central” community prosecutor’s office had sent the details to the prosecutor’s office of the Erebuni/Nubarashen community because the death had taken place in that community. The case is at the prosecutor’s office for seven months now and the office is already planning on quashing the case.
It turns out that similar cases happen a lot these days, due to the non-professionalism of doctors and their obsession of “getting as much money as they can”. However, the “mafia” of doctors and forensic medicine investigators has always won and similar cases, as a rule, are quashed. We will present the details regarding 28-year old Suzanna Badalyan’s terrible death, the conclusions of the forensic medicine investigation center, the manner in which things are done regarding the event at the prosecutor’s office and the doctor’s “mafia” in our next editions.