Blood Sample Taken From Newborn a Day After Burial: What Happened?

On March 12, 2016, a newborn who died in Gyumri's "Mother and Child Austrian Hospital" was buried the same day. According to the details of the criminal case, a blood sample was taken from the infant's body after the burial on March 13. It remains unclear what actually happened and how investigator Yu. Baghdasaryan from the Shirak regional department of the RA Investigative Committee managed to obtain a blood sample from a baby that had already been buried a day earlier.

Investigator Yu. Baghdasaryan initiated a criminal case regarding the infant's death on March 12, and decided to take a blood sample on March 13. Additionally, it is noted in the materials of the criminal case that the blood sampling was conducted with the participation of officials. There is also a certificate of the newborn's death and a burial notice, which state that both the death and burial occurred on March 12.

The blood sample was taken on March 13, while the infant had already been buried on March 12. Based on evident violations and abuses by officials, the Helsinki Civil Assembly's Vanadzor office submitted a report to the RA Prosecutor General's Office on December 18, 2019.

To recap, on the night of March 10-11, 2016, Liana Darbinyan gave birth via Caesarean section at the Gyumri maternity hospital to a baby boy. The next day, the newborn's condition sharply deteriorated. The staff at the maternity hospital urgently called the father, informing him that the infant needed to be transferred to the "Mother and Child Austrian Hospital" for respiratory support. The transfer could not be organized in time, and shortly after reaching the hospital, the baby died. The deceased infant's parents insist that inadequate medical assistance was the cause of their child's death. They also harbor suspicions that the deceased newborn is not their child and that there was a mix-up.

The record concerning the blood sample states that on March 13, 2016, in the presence of midwives Arthur Avagyan and Karapet Hovhannisyan, and specialist Arshak Aleksanyan, a blood sample was taken and filled into a plastic container with a syringe and sealed as the blood sample of Liana Darbinyan's newborn. The container bore the annotation "newborn 13.03.19."

This raises the question: if the blood sampling was conducted on March 13, and the newborn's death certificate states that the child died and was buried on March 12, who was the child buried on March 12?

It must also be noted that the materials of the criminal case, according to the list of documents in the case, are ordered chronologically and logically in terms of the sequence of measures taken by the investigator. Specifically, the first volume of the criminal case contains the record of the seizure made on March 12 on page 16, the record of witness interrogation on pages 17-21, and the decision to take blood samples and the record of the blood sampling on pages 21 and 22 respectively. Thus, there can be no technical issue or confusion regarding the chronological sequence of investigative actions performed by the investigator and the dates of implementation of each.

Moreover, other documents in the criminal case also consistently list the date of taking the blood sample as March 13, 2016. Therefore, the only possible technical issue is also ruled out.

Considering all these factual and legal circumstances and based on the claims made by the deceased newborn's parents regarding violations and inconsistencies mentioned in the context of the criminal case, cases of the investigating authorities covering up the facts and avoiding clarification, as well as their multiple unsuccessful attempts to seek explanations and justice from various state bodies after the described family tragedy, the Helsinki Civil Assembly's Vanadzor office has appealed to the RA Prosecutor General Arthur Davtyan to initiate a criminal case and uncover the illegalities committed by the body conducting the investigation into the infant’s death through a complete, objective, and comprehensive examination, to reveal the truth, hold the responsible parties accountable under the law, ensure the establishment of justice, and uphold the protection of human rights as the highest value within a legal state.