Two senior doctors at a Siberian hospital were arrested on charges of negligence and causing death through negligence following the deaths of nine newborns at the facility earlier this month, Russia’s Investigative Committee announced.
The chief physician and the acting head of intensive care, Vitaly Kheraskov and Alexei Emily, were taken into custody on January 14, 2026, after the infants died between January 4 and January 12, 2026, during Russia’s New Year holiday. The facility is Novokuznetsk Maternity Hospital No. 1, located in Novokuznetsk, Siberia, a city of approximately 500,000 people in the Kuzbass region.
Between December 1 and January 12, 234 children were born at the hospital. Of those, 17 babies were in critical condition in the intensive care unit, with 16 of the 17 being premature. All 17 had severe intrauterine infection, and the babies had extremely low birth weight while suffering from a range of diseases.
State Investigative Committee spokeswoman Svetlana Petrenko detailed the charges against the detained medical professionals. A forensic probe into each death is currently underway to determine the exact circumstances surrounding the fatalities.
The case has exposed serious deficiencies at the hospital. According to the Argumenty i Fakty newspaper, the hospital received five warnings from health authorities between August and November last year. Inspections showed a lack of medicine for certain conditions, raising questions about the facility’s readiness to handle high-risk births and critically ill newborns.
The hospital stopped accepting patients on Tuesday, January 13 due to a high rate of respiratory infections. The facility had been short of dozens of staff, though the hospital denied the staff shortage. The other maternity hospital in Novokuznetsk remains open to serve expectant mothers in the region.
The case highlights chronic staff shortages and funding gaps in the Russian medical system.
Valentina Matvienko, speaker of Russia’s upper house of parliament, called the incident a tragedy. “It must never be repeated,” Matvienko said in a statement, reflecting the widespread shock and anger the deaths provoked among Russian officials and the public.
The Kuzbass region governor ordered an inspection of all regional maternity hospitals in response to the deaths, a move aimed at preventing similar tragedies and identifying systemic problems before they result in additional fatalities.
Pro-Kremlin lawmaker Yana Lantratova addressed the broader implications of the tragedy. “In times of a demographic crisis, allowing several infants to die in one maternity hospital in such a short period is a crime against the country,” Lantratova said.
Pavel Vorobyov, a Russian doctor, questioned the hospital’s response to the crisis as it unfolded. Vorobyov questioned why no action was taken after the first death, suggesting that early intervention might have prevented subsequent fatalities.
The arrests of the chief physician and intensive care head signal that authorities are treating the deaths as potentially preventable rather than unavoidable medical outcomes. Negligence charges in medical contexts typically require prosecutors to demonstrate that healthcare providers failed to meet accepted standards of care and that this failure directly contributed to patient harm or death.
As the forensic investigation continues, families of the deceased infants await answers about what went wrong and whether their children’s deaths could have been prevented.
