Liana Darbinyan gave birth to a baby weighing 2kg 800 grams at the Gyumri maternity hospital on the night of 10 March, 2016, at 11:30 am. She was later told that the child had a respiratory problem.
“Immediately after birth, the baby was taken to the nursery and placed under CPAP, (a device for continuous positive air pressure in the respiratory tract), intended for children weighing from 1 kg to 2 kg 200 g, but my baby was born with weight 2 kg 800 g. Experts note that the child had saturation at 94-96 points, which is within the norm, and it was unclear if the it was within the norm why the child was transported under a respiratory tract,” the mother said. And added that the device that the child actually needed was at the Austrian hospital in Gyumri, where the child was transferred 3 hours later, although, according to the mother, it was a one-way stop.
She also noted that the night of 11 March, around 1:30 pm, the electricity supply of the maternity hospital was disconnected for about 20 minutes. At 4:30 am, the pediatrician woke Liana Darbinyan and asked for her husband’s phone number; “They told me that they would ask my husband to bring medicine, while did not mention that the baby was bad. My husband came and, after his interference the baby was taken by ambulance to the Austrian children’s hospital. In fact, since 2:30 the baby was bad, they waited until 4:30, and only at 20 minutes to 5 they moved the baby, already in serious condition,” she said.
According to the mother, they received an official letter from the management of the electricity company that there were no electricity disconnections and outages at that time, and even if they switched off, there is a second power source that switches on if the other is switched off.
Liana Darbinyan also noted that when the child was taken to the Gyumri Austrian Mother and Child Hospital, the doctor called her husband to show the child and pointed the condition the child was taken to their hospital; “When the baby was taken to the Maternal and Child Health Hospital in Australia, Dr. Sanosyan called my husband and said, ‘Come on, see how in what condition your baby was brought, because the shoulder joint was completely bruised, the side was pressed to the lungs, it was bruised.’ Forensic doctors have not even touched upon it. It stated there that there is no external injury on the child; what was it if it wasn’t an external injury? If there are bruises, swelling, the child’s arm have been completely swelled, the baby moaned all the time, why didn’t they inform the parent earlier or not informed the parent why they didn’t take any action,” Liana Darbinyan says.
When they informed in the morning that the baby had died, Liana Darbinyan asked to go to the morgue to see her child for the last time. “I didn’t recognize the baby because it wasn’t mine. I immediately requested a forensic expertise, but blood was taken from us only on the 15th of the month and the baby’s autopsy was done on the 12th. We have all the facts about it, both from the Austrian Children’s Hospital administration that the child’s body was sent to the morgue on that day and from the Isahakyan village administration where the child is buried, and of course we know that we buried the child on that day. But investigators allege that the baby was found dead on the 13th of the month, perhaps confusing the days and documents and working a very untidy manner. They don’t even read, what is written on paper; it is written the Republican Center of Forensic Medicine of the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Armenia, here in Yerevan, not the autopsy of the child, but the forensic examination of the child’s organs was performed, which started at 11:30 pm on April 13 and ended on 26th. This couldn’t have been an autopsy,” she noted.
According to Liana Darbinyan, she and her husband have given only liquid blood for examination, and in the response to the examination the description of the physical evidence reveals some gauze, with blood stain. “During the first examination, we received the answer that no DNA had been separated from my blood and they could not say whether I was the mother of that child or not. And when we ask the expert whether his father’s Hakob Petrosyan’s blood has been checked or not, they say that they have considered checking his father’s blood as unnecessary until it is clear whether I am the mother or not,” he said.
According to her, the second time they gave blood at the genetic center and the blood from the baby was again that taken on the 12th, of course, was the same. At the second examination the genetics of the mother and child was matched for 100%. “The expert noted that the blood in the test tubes was completely destroyed because those had not been taken by them. It is mentioned gauze, while no such blood was taken from us, only liquid blood was taken,” Liana Darbinyan said.
She also added that the date 15․03․16 was written on the envelope; “Why should it have been mentioned 15.03 if the blood of the child was taken on the 12th of the month (the child was buried on that day), or as they say, on the 13th of the month? What 15th is indicated? I want to say very strictly to Mr. Prosecutors that on the 13th of the month you have confused, dear Prosecutor, by looking at the documents, by negligence you are dismissing the case or want to do something. How did you get liquid blood from a baby if the death certificate actually shows that the baby died on the 12th? The baby stayed for 1 day, and you have tried to take liquid blood on the 13th? How did that happen? On the 13th of the month the baby was already frozen, how can you take liquid blood from the baby?” the mother said.
Liana Darbinyan also added that according to her gynecologist calculations the baby was born at 34-35 weeks of gestation, while a forensic examination revealed that the dead baby was 37-38 weeks. In addition, the baby’s head and height also did not match the data of the deceased child. She also showed the photos of his newborn and deceased child, and claimed that they were different babies.
Details in the video
Alisa Chilingaryan
