Staff at hospital where poisoned Skripals were treated feared they would become victims as well
NURSING staff at the hospital where poisoned Russian spy Sergey Skripal was treated feared they too would become victims of an epidemic caused by the deadly nerve agent.
Doctors and nurses thought they could fall ill from the weapons-grade Novichok poison after the ex-KGB spook, 66, and his daughter Yulia, 33, were targeted in Salisbury, Wilts, on March 4.
The stricken pair were rushed to Salisbury District Hospital where staff initially thought they had taken a drugs overdose.
Director of nursing, Lorna Wilkinson, feared a widespread outbreak after Wiltshire police detective sergeant Nick Bailey was also admitted with nerve agent symptoms.
She said: “There was a real concern as to how big could this get.
“Have we just gone from having two index patients to having something that actually could become all-consuming and involve many casualties.
“Because we really didn't know at that point.”
Speaking for the first time of the moment the Skripal’s were brought to the intensive care unit, Sister Sarah Clark said: “We were just told that there were two patients down in the emergency department who were critically unwell and they would be coming up to the unit.”
Dr Duncan Murray, Head of Intensive Care Department, said: “I spoke to the nurse in charge who had been on that night and it was this conversation I really could never have imagined in my wildest imagination having with anyone.”
Dr Stephen Jukes, the Intensive Care Consultant who treated the Skripals a week after they arrived at the hospital, said once the nerve agent was detected “all the evidence was there that they would not survive".
Both the Skripals have now been discharged from hospital and are recovering.
But their future health and that of DS Bailey still hangs in the balance.
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Medical director at the hospital, Dr Christine Blanshard, Medical Director at the hospital, said of their future recovery: “The honest answer is we don't know.
“It’s safe to say we’re still learning”.
The hospital added that “international experts”, some of them from the government’s Porton Down research lab helped with testing and advice on treatment.