18-year-old boy’s relatives blame for his death not only the commander, but also 2 doctors of Muratsan Military Hospital.
The death of 18-year-old Hayk Khachatryan, a resident of the village of Spandaran, Artik region, shocked the whole region. It was unprecedented, because the young man was not killed during an argument, as it usually happens in our army, but a soldier serving his duty in the capital’s downtown died from chicken pox in the 21st century.
According to his grandmother Aida Avagyan, her grandson studying at the History and Linguistics faculty of Gyumri Pedagogical Institute joined the army with great excitement on the day of his birth, “on June 1, he cut the cake and joined the army at the same time.” Since the young man was very strong physically, trained, he was immediately taken as a sniper into the reconnaissance battalion, given a diploma with honors, however 7 months after because of poor feeding and losing immunity the boy caught chicken pox and, as his relatives say, became a victim of negligence. “During a night duty a tear came out of his eye and the eyelid did not close, his friend was first to notice that and advised that he went to the medical unit, but Hayk thought it would pass. The next day he became exhausted and approached the commander and said that he wasn’t able to run, but the commander did not believe him and said that he was telling a lie and his eye did not close because he had poured glycerol onto the eye, he was pretending and had to run. The kid was compelled to run, but the next day his face was paralyzed, his friend advised to call home, call parents over, but Hayk did not agree again. And that pitiless commander made him run again, ordered him to carry out a night duty, the kid got worse, lit a fire and tried to heat his face. He became emaciated till the morning”, told Aida Avagyan mourning.
They were compelled to transfer Hayk to the medical unit, kept him there for a day, only then decided to transfer him to Muratsan Military Hospital, where, according to Hayk’s relatives, the soldier died because of wrong treatment and doctors’ negligence. The parents were shocked when they saw the paralyzed face of their son. Hayk told them that soldiers from his military unit were infected with chicken pox, three soldiers had been transferred to the infection hospital, he had thought he would be transferred too. However, hospital doctor Armenuhi Serobyan objected to the boy’s transfer, arguing that they should treat his face first. “I am a pedagogue, his father is a police officer, we couldn’t have known that his face would be paralyzed because of chicken pox – when his father went to the hospital on December 28, and saw that the doctors had locked the kid suffering enormous pain, had sprayed chlorine all over the room, absolutely no nurse, no doctor had wished to come, the kid vomited, was hardly speaking, they even grudged tea, they thought he was a dying patient. His father seeing his boy writhing in pain, approached Minas Mkrtchyan, the head of the hospital department, and asked, begged to permit the transfer of his kid to the infection department, but the latter opposed rudely. My Hayk had died, before they transferred him to infection department. They killed the healthy kid, if I strangle the monstrous doctor to death, don’t call me a murderer, if I become a criminal at my age, don’t blame me”, said Hayk’s grandmother crying.
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According to the relatives, the extreme negligence for soldiers was shown not only by the spread of the epidemic and not-showing the adequate medical treatment, but also by the food they gave. “Healthy kids lose immunity because of the lack of food, soups are rotten, dishes tasteless, potatoes blackened, meat spoiled, if a kid doesn’t eat and goes for a 10km run, he will be no soldier. Then they impudently say ‘let’s find out what disease was your boy suffering from’. Did he take the infection to the army from our house? Shame on you, if you don’t defend a soldier, why do you recruit, I trusted my kid’s health to you, but what have I got – my kid’s corps on the first day of the New Year”, said the grandmother, demanding that the president of the republic punished the doctors and commander. By the way, no one from the defense ministry has visited Hayk yet. They addressed complaints to the president of the country, the attorney general, the defense minister. “We will not allow to mock us, conceal the murder, saying our kid was sick, the soldier caught chicken pox, the doctor assigned wrong treatment, they took him to the wrong hospital, they showed negligent and pitiless attitude”, complained the grandmother. Hayk’s relatives have videos about how Hayk ran up to the neighboring village every day, was hardened in the snow.
Let us mention that his father Movses Khachatryan, a police officer from Artik, saw with his own eyes how his son was being tortured, the latter was so moved that he didn’t want to talk. He only informed that they had tried to cover the burial expenses, but he had refused to take. The grandmother is not able to work anymore, Hayk’s younger brother cannot go to school either. An investigation was launched in this regard, according to Paragraph 2 of Article 376, i.e. professional negligence that led to serious consequences, but it is surprising there are no suspects and arrestees yet. Let us add that the tortured soldier is from the birthplace of National Security Secretary Artur Baghdasaryan.
NUNE AREVSHATYAN
