Relatives of snowboarder who died in Sochi claim investigators' and doctors' inaction

Alexei Matveev, a resident of the city of Cheboksary, perished in Sochi mountains when riding his snowboard. According to his relatives, Alexei would have been alive if he had been provided with timely medical help.

The 33-year-old Alexei Matveev received his trauma on February 13 at about 5:00 p.m. in Sochi, at the "Roza Khutor" Resort. In the unconscious state he was found at an altitude of 1170 meters above sea level on the Plateau route. On February 21, Alexei died in the intensive care unit without regaining consciousness, said his relatives.

His friend, Dmitry Kupriyanov, told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent that after rescuers brought Alexei to the first-aid post, he stayed there without special equipment and special neurosurgeons' help for four hours.

According to Dmitry, only at 10:00 p.m. Moscow time, an intensive care car arrived in the hospital and took Alexei to the neurosurgical department of another city hospital, where at 11:30 p.m. they began a surgery.

"That is, more than six hours passed from the accident and the start of the vital surgery. It's unexplainable," Kupriyanov said.

According to his story, law enforcers did not want to question him, and conduct no inquiry both into the circumstances of Alexei's injury, and into the failure to provide timely help to him.

Alexander Matveev, a brother of the deceased Alexei, and Dmitry Kupriyanov filed an application to the Public Prosecutor of Adler, where they complained about inaction of law enforcers and medical workers.

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.