Belarus’s Health Ministry has taken control of the situation involving medical care provided to a patient at Minsk’s 5th City Clinical Hospital in 2025.
The move followed a story told by Onliner about 24-year-old Krystsina, who was admitted to Minsk’s 5th maternity hospital in the summer of 2025 and was discharged with an intestinal stoma.
While giving birth to a baby weighing 4,840 grams, she suffered a severe obstetric injury — third-degree perineal tears with damage to the anal sphincter. Nine days after giving birth, she developed a rectovaginal fistula, and doctors were forced to create an intestinal stoma. The woman underwent several operations, and the stoma was not reversed until January 2026. Krystsina insists that the tragedy could have been avoided if doctors had performed a caesarean section, which she had requested. In response to her complaint, the Minsk City Executive Committee’s Health Committee concluded that the birth plan had been justified and that what happened was an “unpredictable and extremely rare complication”.
As reported today by Deputy Head of the Medical Activity Oversight Department at the Health Ministry Alena Paulava, alongside the commission of the Minsk City Executive Committee’s Health Committee, a separate commission from the ministry itself is now working with the participation of the country’s leading specialists in obstetrics, gynaecology and surgery. An expert review of the quality of medical care at all stages is being carried out.
The commission’s findings are expected to include an assessment of the actions of medical staff and, if necessary, measures in response.
