Navalny discharged from Berlin hospital, doctors say 'complete recovery possible'

Russian opposition figure Alexei Navalny was discharged from Berlin hospital, where he was being treated for what Germany has said is a case of poisoning, on September 22. According to a statement by the Charité hospital, Navalny had ‘improved sufficiently’ and was fit to be discharged from acute inpatient care. The 44-year-old became seriously ill aboard a Moscow-bound flight on August 20 and he spent almost 32 days in the Berlin hospital, 24 of which were in the intensive-care unit. 

However, Charité Hospital said, “The patient’s condition had improved sufficiently for him to be discharged from acute inpatient care”. 

“Based on the patient’s progress and current condition, the treating physicians believe that complete recovery is possible. However, it remains too early to gauge the potential long-term effects of his severe poisoning,” the hospital added. 

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Alexei Navalny, a staunch critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin, fell sick under mysterious circumstances on a flight back to Moscow from Siberia on Aug 20. He was rushed to a hospital in the Siberian city of Omsk after the plane made an emergency landing. Navalny was put into an artificial coma and was moved to Germany after much debate over his transfer. Navalny had remained in an induced coma until September 7 when doctors treating him informed that his condition has improved. 

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Navalny’s poisoning 

German health authorities had confirmed the poisoning of Navalny with a nerve agent from the Novichok group, citing toxicological test results. Later, specialist laboratories in France and Sweden also confirmed the poisoning with the Soviet-style nerve agent Novichok. Germany informed on September 18 that the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) is still investigating the cause independently.

Navalny's team said that the politician was poisoned at his hotel room in the Siberian city of Tomsk and not at the airport as suspected earlier. The team informed that they collected everything they could from the hotel room on the day he fell sick and sent it to Germany for investigation. The German laboratory found traces of Novichok agent on bottles collected from Navalny's room.  

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