Doctors' Delay Leads to Amputation of Dancer's Leg

After doctors delayed treating him for a week after a road accident, a 25-year-old Russian break-dance champion had to have one of his legs amputated.

Yevgeny Smirnov, holder of 30 break-dancing trophies, was seriously injured when a car cut in front of his scooter in the Black Sea resort of Lazarevskoye May 1. Smirnov spun off the highway and fainted after the collision, Life News reported.

The car driver fled the scene but was later found by Smirnov's friends and police, the dancer's friend Anna Kharlamova said. A criminal investigation has been opened into the accident.

An ambulance took him to a hospital in Lazarevskoye where doctors diagnosed a double open shin-bone fracture.

His friends insisted he be transferred to the regional centre of Krasnodar, which has a bigger hospital than the one he was first taken to. Local doctors kept turning them down until Sochi mayor Anatoly Pakhomov stepped in.

The delay in treatment resulted in gangrene infection and his leg had to be amputated.

The gangrene then began spreading to his second leg, but doctors in Krasnodar carried out surgery in a bid to stop the infection spreading and stitched the second leg Monday night, Kharlamova said.

Meanwhile, Smirnov's friends are raising money for the break dance champion, whose parents are dead.

"In the next two-three years, he will need money to provide for himself until he recovers his athletic shape and returns to coaching younger sportsmen," Kharlamova said.

His friends have also organized a fund-raising concert to be held in Sochi May 19 in support of the dancer. Fifteen dance groups, singers, entertainers and rappers will perform at the event.



Source: IANS