Doctor: “The condition of Zmitser Bandarenka brings serious concerns”

The wife of “Amerikanka” political prisoner Zmitser Bandarenka Volha is deeply concerned about her husband health.

She knows about Zmitser’s nervous system pathology (discogenic radiculopathy with incomplete paralysis of one leg) not only from an immediate family member perspective, but also as a professional sports trainer, an expert with knowledge of human physiology.

Now Volha Bandarenka is pressing for Minsk Hospital No 5, where Dzmiter received treatment a year ago, to forward his clinical diagnosis, MRI results and other medical tests to KGB Detention Center.

In the interview with “Radio Svododa” (Radio “Freedom”) Volha Bandarenka went over main reasons which in her opinion account for her husband’s health deterioration:

“The reasons are cold, stress and certainly all the things Mikhalevich told about: stretching, staying naked in a cold damp room. I don’t know why they [prisoners] were made to squat repeatedly. Maybe, as they were naked, to warm them up? Maybe it was an act of humanism.”

A year ago, around the same time in the spring Zmitser Bandarenka, a coordinator of “European Belarus”, experienced exacerbation of his old health issues caused by the previous spine cord injury around the same spring time a year ago.

He endured acute episodes of pain on his feet stopping them with analgesics. This lasted until he once collapsed to the floor. Volha Bandarenka remembers:

“I witnessed all these symptoms developing. Last spring he had to walk suffering from hideous pain. He ended up with just falling on the floor in a room. He just fell on the floor. First, because of pain. We called an emergency then. After that he lost the ability to walk. He would fall because his foot wouldn’t move. It wouldn’t move as the nerves were pinched.”

“There is a shift towards the vertebral canal causing intolerable pain”

That time Zmitser Bandarenka was taken to Minsk Hospital #5, where he received necessary treatment. When discharging him from the hospital, the doctors insisted upon subsequent seeing a neurologist and consulting a neurosurgeon in case of pain symptoms, growing claudication and small pelvis concerns. There was also a surgical operation risk due to a slipped disc danger.

An expert from Minsk, Ph.D. in Medicine Alexander after a review of Zmitser Bandarenka’s medical record concluded:

“Yes. All that is a result of hernia which moves further up the vertebral canal, completely pressing down against nerves roots and causing small pelvis organs dysfunction, I mean urination and defecation. It also can cause legs numbness or affect their sensitivity. His paresis and sensitivity impairment indicate some serious condition. To find out the scale of the disc shift we need to see the MRI results. Most likely, there is a shift towards the vertebral canal which can cause the canal blockage and all the nerves roots in spinal fluid might hang out. Of course, that causes intolerable pain. The most important thing here is to lie down for several days, especially, in the warm. The patient can only stand up to use a restroom or to eat. But generally, a neurosurgery is required.”

“Neither the patient nor his family members will ever be able to establish the connection between Zmitser’s menacing disability and delay in the necessary treatment”

As Volha Bandarenka says, continuous sharp pain, described by her husband in his letters from the KGB Detention Center, is directly linked to exacerbation of his other conditions – gout and stomach ulcer. For instance, gout makes the toes swell out and hurt so much that the patient can neither walk nor sleep. One can climb the wall without painkillers:

“He receives the pills I send him as well as injections and painkillers. But what scares me more is his main condition, as there is a threat for small pelvis organs. Obviously, he can’t be treated in the Detention Center. We have 2 choices: either a surgery or blockades in case we have a chance of conservative treatment. Anyway only hospital treatment is possible here. I handed over the medical reports they required through the attorney to the Detention Center Infirmary. In my presence the lawyer inquired about the response time and the reply was “within a month”. Although such terms are applied only to private individuals and their family members while in the attorney’s case it should be much faster. Nevertheless, the reply was “within a month”. Besides, she[the attorney] wasn’t provided with any phone contacts. The lawyer can contact neither the infirmary nor the Detention Center Information Bureau.”

According to Dr. Alexander, the saddest and even tragic in this situation is that neither the patient nor his family members will ever be able to establish the connection between Zmitser’s menacing disability and delay in the necessary treatment:

“It’s not appendicitis or peritonitis or pneumothorax which require immediate surgical operation by life-saving indication. But what are neurological pathologies compared to state interests? Nothing. There are so many people, especially in rural areas, who limp or have spine concerns, and so on!”

The physician regrets that Mikhalevich’s statements about the prisoners’ tortures by stretching which can at once wreck person’s spine and joints remained disregarded or ignored by many doctors.