Hayk Vardanyan, a prisoner of the “Armavir” penitentiary, has been on hunger strike for 21 days. He only demands that he be transferred to a civil hospital and finally treated.
In the medical history of Hyak Vardanyan, it is mentioned that he has urethral stricture, that is, the narrowing. This is a severe, crippling disease in men, in which there is sudden or gradual scarring of the urethra, after which it closes, urination becomes impossible, and the nitrogen content in the blood increases.
During the 21 days of the hunger strike, the convict lost 11 kilograms of weight. His wife, Margarita Vardanyan, warns that two days ago Hayk had kidney bleeding in the area of the ureter, which lasted for 3 hours.
According to Margarita, instead of treating her husband, they sent him for regular check-ups. “My husband refused these check-ups: how many times can one be checked without treatment? Until September 5, he was at the Izmirlian Center, he passed all the examinations, and there they decided that he should undergo an operation. It’s as if they are making fun on my husband: he’s bleeding, they tell him let’s take him for a blood test,” says the convict’s wife.
Naira Babayan, deputy director and public relations officer of the state non-profit organization says that the organization is ready to organize Hayk Vardanyan’s surgery, but before that he must receive anti-inflammatory treatment. “No doctor will agree to operate on Hayk Vardanyan in that condition. He has to take anti-inflammatory medication for just one week, then we will send him to the hospital. But he refuses to take medicines,” says Naira Babayan.
According to Babayan, Hayk Vardanyan can also take the medication in the penitentiary where he is located, that is, in Armavir. However, he does not want to stay there and wants to be transferred to the Convicts’ Hospital at any cost.
This is how the convict appeared in a closed circle. What to do? His wife, Margarita, explains that the tests do not help in any way to identify her husband’s problems. “They check in the institution without sonography, without looking inside; they say he is completely healthy. That is what they told us at the Vargharshapat MC, where he was for a week. My husband no longer trusts doctors: if everything is fine, if he is healthy, why is he bleeding? Now they want to take a blood test, as if they laugh at him; that’s why he refuses everything.”
After the last examination, the doctors of the civil hospital issued an order according to which Hayk Vardanyan should be kept under the mandatory supervision of an urologist, cardiologist, endocrinologist, and infectious disease specialist.
According to Margarita Vardanyan, he is in a serious condition. “He is hopelessly lying there now; they are waiting for him to pass out before they decide. They tell me that he is refusing medical care, but he is not refusing medical care, but the check-ups,” says Margarita. No one is able to convince Hayk to leave the hunger strike.
Syuzan Simonyan