24 July 2007, 19:04
All renal insufficiency patients go on hunger strike in Ingushetia
Thirty-five renal insufficiency patients have gone on hunger strike in the city of Nazran (Ingushetia). Radimkhan Zangieva, one of the participants of the protest action, has reported on air of the "Echo Moskvy" Radio Station that the hunger-strikers demand that haemodialysis apparatuses be installed at the hospital, for deficiency of which 9 persons have died within the recent two years.
"We've refused not only to take food, but also from any medical aid, and we can't drink water at all," Ms Zangieva has noted. "Therefore, nobody knows for how long we can survive, maybe for 3-5 days at most."
As of today, a total of 35 patients with chronic renal insufficiency are registered at the haemodialysis ward of the Ingush Republic's Clinical Hospital. Each of them needs a four-hour long kidney cleaning procedure three times a week.
The patients had applied for help to the Republic's leaders and the Ministry of Public Health of Ingushetia; however the situation has not changed.
One of local NGOs has informed the "Caucasian Knot" that on July 23 the patients addressed the leadership of the Russian Federation and human rights activists with an appeal to interfere and help to defend their rights.
