Chief physician at Omsk hospital says Navalny’s working diagnosis is a metabolic disease

The head doctor at the Omsk hospital treating Alexey Navalny says that the main working diagnosis for his condition is a metabolic disease caused by low blood sugar. 

“Today we have [several] working diagnoses. Among these working diagnoses, the main one that we are most inclined towards is a carbohydrate deficiency, that is, a metabolic disease. This could have been caused by a sharp drop in blood sugar on the plane, which caused a loss of consciousness,” chief physician Alexander Murakhovsky said on the morning of August 21.

Murakhovsky also said that there were no traces of GHB (he used the term “oxybates”) or drugs acting as central nervous system depressants (“barbiturates”) found in Navalny’s system, contrary to earlier reports that the opposition politician was poisoned by hallucinogenic drugs. “We conducted a chemical and toxicological exam of the samples yesterday. I can say for sure that there weren’t any oxybates or barbiturates detected,” Murakhovsky said. 

“[There are reports] going around in the media about a chemical compound that was taken by experts for analysis. I can say that it wasn’t biological material that was taken. These materials were taken from the surface of the skin, from clothes, from nails, and so on. We have already carried out a number of consultations [and] studies — this chemical compound is a common industrial chemical, which is used particularly, for example, in plastic cups, which everyone touch,” the chief physician added. 

Murakhovsky also said that Navalny can’t be transported, since he is in unstable and serious condition. The head doctor explained that flying would put Navalny at risk of “increased instability during takeoff and landing”; increasing his risk of irregular blood flow (“hemodynamic irregularities”) and seizures. “As such, my colleagues [and] colleagues from Moscow came to the decision that we can’t risk [his] life. There are a lot of risks. At the moment he can’t be transported,” Murakhovsky said. 

On the other hand, Navalny’s personal physician, Dr. Anastasia Vasileva of the Doctors’ Alliance, maintained that “metabolic disorders can occur due to a huge number of diseases.” “This is a condition, and not diagnosis,” she said. In conversation with Meduza, Vasileva confirmed that poisoning from toxic substances can also cause metabolic diseases. 

Alexey Navalny was hospitalized on August 20, after he fell violently ill while on board a plane flying from Tomsk to Moscow. The aircraft made an emergency landing in Omsk, where Navalny was admitted to intensive care. He is currently in a coma and, according to local doctors, in stable but serious condition.

Navalny’s associates believe that he could have been poisoned, specifically by something mixed into the tea that he drank before his departure from the Tomsk airport. On the morning of August 21, his aides said a police officer at the hospital claimed that a dangerous agent was discovered in Navalny’s body that threatens both his life and the lives of everyone around him. Officially, local law enforcement denies these reports.

Navalny’s family members and associates want to transport him to a top clinic in Germany for treatment, but doctors in Omsk have refused to allow him to be moved in his current state. After examining Alexey Navalny, a team of intensive care doctors from Germany concluded that he can be transported safely.