Navalny mostly likely suffering from metabolic disorder - Omsk hospital chief physician
OMSK. Aug 21 (Interfax) - Opposition activist Alexei Navalny is mostly likely suffering from a metabolic disorder, the press service for the Omsk Region Health Ministry said on Friday, citing chief physician of Omsk Emergency Hospital No. 1 Alexander Murakhovsky.
"As of today, we have working diagnoses. The main one is an upset of his carbohydrate balance, i.e., a metabolic disorder," Murakhovsky said.
According to Murakhovsky, Navalny has tested negative for oxybutyrates and barbiturates.
"Tests have been performed. Neither oxybutyrates nor barbiturates have been found. Testing is continuing, however," he said.
Navalny's unstable condition prevents him from being transported, Murakhovsky said.
"Navalny is in unstable severe condition. During takeoff and landing, this instability may increase and develop into hemodynamic abnormalities [malperfusion] and a convulsive disorder. Hence, the concilium has decided that this risk mustn't be taken. Although his general condition has improved slightly," the Omsk region's Health Ministry quoted Murakhovsky as saying.
Meanwhile, Navalny's doctor said she does not trust the diagnosis of the doctors in Omsk.
"A metabolic disorder can happen with a great variety of diseases. It's a condition, not a diagnosis. Low blood sugar isn't a diagnosis, either. By the way, his blood sugar was normal yesterday," Navalny's doctor Anastasia Vasilyeva said on Twitter.
"Once again, they're taking us for idiots: they use clever general phrases, but are unable to establish the cause of his coma or offer a diagnosis," Vasilyeva said.
Vasilyeva insists that Navalny has been poisoned. "This is a poisoning, which has triggered a severe metabolic disorder. This is mean-spirited doublespeak," she said.
Vasilyeva also wondered why transporting Navalny has been prohibited with such a diagnosis.
"If he's been diagnosed with nothing more than a metabolic disorder, why not let Alexei go to Berlin? This is because they're waiting for three days so that his system clears the poison and it becomes impossible to detect in Europe the presence of a toxic substance in his body," Vasilyeva said.
Navalny felt unwell on the flight from Tomsk to Moscow on Thursday, and the plane had to land in Omsk. The opposition activist was rushed to the intensive care unit of the Omsk hospital. He is still in a coma. Navalny's associates said he might have been poisoned. According to Navalny's press secretary Kira Yarmysh, Navalny did not have any breakfast on Thursday morning but only drank tea he bought at the Tomsk Airport terminal.