A woman is “lame for life” after she tumbled out of the back of an ambulance in Russia — and the oblivious paramedics didn’t notice for 16 miles, according to a new report.
Galina Dmitriyeva, 56, was being shuttled between hospitals the day of the incident — which happened eight months ago but is only now being disclosed, the Mirror reported Friday.
Dmitriyeva, who was feeling dizzy and breathless, was at a Lipetsk city hospital where doctors decided she had not suffered a stroke, and sent her to Zadonsk District Hospital instead, according to the report.
On the way there, the paramedic sat in front with the driver, leaving Dmitriyeva alone in the back, the outlet reported.
When Dmitriyeva, a swimming pool cleaner, started feeling worse, she spoke up — only to be waved off.
“I felt increasingly unwell,” she told Russian-language outlet Komsomolskaya Pravda, translated by the Mirror. “I said to the woman paramedic that I was unwell.”
“She shouted at me: ‘What do you want now? Sit quiet,’” Dmitriyeva told the outlet.
She tried to move closer to the paramedic to plead for help — but instead she tumbled against the improperly locked back door, the Mirror reported.
“Everything went dark,” she said. “I flew out on the road.”
But the distracted ambulance crew continued to drive for another 16 miles before they realized what had happened, according to the report.
She was eventually discovered lying in the road and another ambulance rushed her to the hospital.
Dmitriyeva, who lives alone, said she broke her jaw, leg and hip and has yet to receive an apology for what happened.
More than a half-year after the incident, she still walks with crutches and struggles to speak.
Authorities at first declined to open a criminal investigation into negligence leading to health damage — but prosecutors overruled them, the outlet reported.
The paramedic could spend up to a year behind bars and some staff members have been reprimanded.
The hospital initially blamed Dmitriyeva — claiming she got out of the ambulance voluntarily — but later walked that back, according to the report.
