Incarcerated Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who has been experiencing severe back pain in prison, cannot find out his diagnosis: the prison doctor has refused to answer his questions and the data in his medical record, a printout of which he received, is impossible to make out. Navalny has said he will sue for the right to “read something in his own medical records.”
According to Navalny, his back issues have deteriorated due to his continued solitary confinement, where he must either sit on an iron stool or stand for 16 hours a day. A month and a half after complaining about his health problems, a doctor came to see him without revealing her last name, without giving a diagnosis and without telling him what treatment she prescribed. After her visit, Navalny started receiving injections:
“After a while they start giving me shots. ‘What are you injecting?’ – I asked. ‘What the doctor prescribed. B vitamins, for one.’ Vitamins are fine, but the injections don't help, and in general you feel a little uncomfortable when they inject you with an unknown drug.”
Navalny tried to get hold of his diagnosis and treatment regimen, but the prison administration left all his questions unanswered. Finding that he was entitled to a copy of his medical records, Navalny submitted an application to retrieve them. The politician eventually received a copy of the documents, but they turned out to be completely ineligible:
“And you laughed at the fact that I'm getting winter boots through the court. Now I’m going to sue for the right to read something in my own medical records. I’m waiting for the moment when they will bring soup to my cell after I complain to the court. That's okay. I'm a lawyer and I love courts, only the lawyers are a little tired,” – wrote Navalny.