A doctor who treated Sergei Skripal and his daughter has told an inquiry he was “gobsmacked” when Yulia Skripal woke up four days after being poisoned by the nerve agent Novichok.
Dr Stephen Cockcroft described the moment he was called into Ms Skripal’s room by a colleague, asking him to “come quick, Yulia is getting out of bed!”
“I could see Yulia was crying, she looked very, very anxious, absolutely terrified”, said Dr Cockroft. He said he held her hands and tried to reassure her, and was “staggered” when she looked him in the eyes.
He had previously believed Ms Skripal was likely to have suffered “catastrophic” brain damage as a result of the poisoning.
“If I thought there was going to be some real long lasting damage it would be to her. And there she was – apparently awake,” he said.
Mr Cockcroft said he asked whether anybody had attacked her and her father, adding: “I said, ‘we think you have both been poisoned.’ I think I asked her ‘did anyone spray anything over you?'”
Dr Cockroft told the inquiry he didn’t get a response from Yulia , who was sedated again within around five minutes, but was subsequently suspended from the Intensive Care Unit and told it would be treated as “serious misconduct” if he discussed any aspect of the poisonings again.
“I do feel this was a lost opportunity to discuss with my colleagues what I had observed in those first few hours and how I recognised that the Skripals had been poisoned.”
He said he was prevented from speaking at two debriefing events with other clinicians, where he could have shared his knowledge and experience.
The second occasion, he said, was shortly before Dawn Sturgess was poisoned with the same type of nerve agent. She was also treated at Salisbury Hospital, but died on July 8, 2018.
The inquiry heard from a scientist at Porton Down, the UK’s top secret chemical weapons research laboratory, where it was confirmed that Novichok was the nerve agent that had been used in the poisonings.
As journalists, we watch proceedings in an annex next to the main hearing room on a video link with a 10 minute delay.
That’s in case they need to” close” the feed because something is being discussed that could affect national security.
We listened as the scientist, known only as ‘FT49’ in order to protect his identity, was asked about Novichok.
The inquiry’s lawyers wanted to know why the nerve agent, which both Ms Sturgess and her partner Charlie Rowley were exposed to at the same time, could have affected them in such different ways.
We have already heard that Dawn Sturgess sprayed the Novichok directly onto her wrist, believing it to be perfume. It was in a bottle that had been found by Charlie , who described having difficulty getting it open and spilling some of its contents over his hands.
FT49 said that the skin on a person’s hand is generally “much thicker” and more robust than the skin on their wrist, and the fact that Mr Rowley immediately washed his hands would have had a “large beneficial effect” on his chances of survival.
The inquiry was also told that it was “likely” that Dawn had smelled what she thought was perfume, therefore inhaling the nerve agent which would have led to “much more rapid and serious symptoms”.
Ms Sturgess collapsed within minutes, whereas Mr Rowley became ill several hours later and was taken to hospital, where he later recovered.
FT49 said that Sergei survival may have been in part thanks to an “excellent drug dosing error” after a paramedic gave him a Novichok antidote by accident.
In a statement to the inquiry, Karl Bulpitt said that he and his colleagues initially suspected they were dealing with a drugs overdose.
On that basis he meant to administer naloxone, but knocked over his drugs bag as he was trying to treat the patient and picked up vials of atropine instead.
The inquiry continues.
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