Today, a high-profile scandal broke out in Ukraine in the field of medical transplants, when ex-Deputy Minister of Health Mykhailo Zagriichuk and ten other high-ranking doctors were detained on suspicion of violating the legislation on the distribution of organs for transplantation.
This ex-deputy minister turned out to be Mykhailo Zagriichuk , own sources reported. He confirmed this and stated that he is currently a suspect, not detained.
Mykhailo Zagriychuk
Mykhailo Zagriychuk was the deputy minister of Zoryana Skaletska. Now he works at the Department of Transplantation and Abdominal Surgery at the Institute of the Heart, which is headed by Boris Todurov.
Criminal proceedings were opened under part 1, 2 of article 255, part 5 of article 143, and part 3 of article 362 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine:
- Creation of a criminal organization, management of such an organization or its structural parts, participation in a criminal organization
- Actions provided for by the second, third or fourth parts of this article, committed by a group of persons based on a prior conspiracy, or participation in transnational organizations engaged in such activities - the previous items are removal from a person by coercion or deception of his anatomical materials for the purpose of their transplantation, such actions committed against a person who was in a helpless state or financially or otherwise dependent on the perpetrator, illegal trade in human anatomical materials
- unauthorized alteration, destruction or blocking of information that is processed in electronic computing machines (computers), automated systems or computer networks or stored on the media of such information, committed by a person who has the right to access it, unauthorized interception or copying of information , which is processed in electronic computing machines (computers), automated systems, computer networks or stored on the media of such information, if this led to its leakage, committed by a person who has the right to access such information.
All eleven medics have been charged with suspicion.
According to two interlocutors of LB.ua, who are familiar with the case, the investigation suspects that a group of doctors sold the queue for transplantation, that they were involved and received funds for manipulations with the queue of transplant coordinators. All this was allegedly done in order for the Institute of the Heart to receive organs for transplants.
"If the line is moved, it is definitely not free for the person for whom it was moved," says the interlocutor, another source says the same. That is, we are talking about intervention in EDIST, the Unified State Transplantation Information System.
Both interlocutors also say that the investigators conducted this case for a long time and used technical means for listening.
The General Director of the Ukrainian Center for Transplant Coordination, Dmytro Koval, said in a comment to Suspilno that law enforcement officials contacted the Ukrainian Center for Transplant Coordination in April 2024. He stated that there was no unauthorized access to YEDIST and the law enforcement officers know it. When asked whether it was authorized to change data in EDIST, Koval answered: "Each user makes certain changes in EDIST, but there are currently no complaints about the operation of EDIST."
The high-profile case and the detention of so many doctors led to the fact that in Ukraine, transplants from deceased donors are not carried out for two weeks. Doctors are afraid, says a knowledgeable interlocutor, to declare death.
