Former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, who is undergoing treatment in Ukrzaliznytsia’s Central Clinical Hospital No.5 in Kharkiv, is insisting on an extended analysis of blood, which should be done by doctors from the Berlin-based Charite Hospital who are treating her, Tymoshenko's defense lawyer MP Serhiy Vlasenko, has said.
"Yulia Volodymyrivna [Tymoshenko] has demanded that her blood test be conducted by specialists from the Charite clinic. Ten days ago, a respective statement was sent to the management of Ukrzaliznytsia’s hospital," Vlasenko was quoted as saying by the official Web site of the Batkivschyna Party on June 7.
"By law, every person who is in prison has the right to choose the doctors who will treat him or her, and the hospitals in which examinations and tests will be conducted. This is the right of all Ukrainian citizens, including those who are in prison. No one can deprive people of this right," Vlasenko said.
He also denied there was truth in a statement made by the head doctor of Ukrzaliznytsia’s hospital, Mykhailo Afanasyev, that Tymoshenko had refused to provide a blood sample to a German doctor.
Earlier, Afanasyev said that Tymoshenko had repeatedly refused and is continuing to refuse to undergo any biochemical tests.
"As far as I know, the Charite clinic [a German clinic whose doctors participated in the examination and treatment of Tymoshenko] addressed the Ukrainian side through our Foreign Ministry with the request to allow the patient’s blood sample to be taken to Germany for analysis. There were no questions on our part, especially objections," he said.
"There is a clear procedure, and I have repeatedly talked about it. If Yulia Volodymyrivna [Tymoshenko] gives her consent, then we are ready to take three blood samples, one – for the German clinic, one for Ukraine, and one control sample. Only the patient has objections. She has not agreed to provide a blood sample for analysis to our German colleague," Afanasyev said.
