Artsakh healthcare authorities reported that a patient requiring life-saving treatment had died as a result of Azerbaijan’s blockade of the Lachin Corridor, which entered its eighth day on Monday. The officials added that there were four others in critical condition at the Stepanakert hospital.
The patient was undergoing dialysis for more than 15 years and had to be transferred to another treatment center. Another patient in need of urgent heart surgery was transported by ambulance, accompanied by the International Committee of the Red Cross, Russian peacekeeping troops and the police through the Lachin Corridor, first to a medical center in Goris, and then to the Nork-Marash Cardiology Clinic in Yerevan.
Currently there are 92 patients receiving in-patient care at the hospital, 11 of whom are in the intensive care unit, four of them in critical condition.
A similar situation is taking place at the Arevik Children’s Hospital where there are 12 patients in the respiratory, intensive care and neonatal departments. A four-year-old child is also in extremely serious condition with the hospital’s executive director saying that the child’s life is in danger with an urgent need to be transported to Yerevan.
Scheduled surgeries have been suspended at all hospitals across Artsakh, the country’s health ministry said.
While there are no shortages of essential medical supplies, with the ongoing blockade the possibility of receiving more supplies is bleak.
