OMSK, August 20. /TASS/. Doctors have not yet diagnosed the case of Russian blogger Alexei Navalny who was rushed to a local hospital in Omsk earlier on Thursday. They are currently providing symptomatic treatment, Anatoly Kalinichenko, Deputy Chief Physician of the Omsk Emergency Hospital No. 1, told reporters.
"There are diagnoses that have been ruled out or are in the process of confirmation. [Doctors] are holding consultations. We will decide on the diagnosis later in the day. Symptomatic treatment [is currently being conducted]," he said.
Meanwhile, Navalny’s spokeswoman Kira Yarmysh said in a Twitter post that he was in a ‘coma’. "Alexei is still on a ventilator. He is in a coma and in serious condition. There are no test results yet," she wrote.
Yarmysh earlier claimed that Navalny may have been poisoned.
However, according to Kalinichenko, this is only one of the versions. "It is not certain that poisoning is the cause of [the patient’s] condition," he stressed. "Naturally, poisoning is considered to be one of the causes of the deterioration of his health. <…> Lots of tests are being conducted. A number of possible diagnoses have been excluded. The search for a diagnosis has narrowed."
Earlier reports said that the plane carrying the Russian blogger made an emergency landing in Omsk after Navalny suddenly felt under the weather in mid-flight. According to Yarmysh, Navalny only drank tea in the morning.
The hospital’s chief physician Alexander Murakhovsky confirmed to TASS that the blogger was in serious condition and that he had been connected to a ventilator.