Ukrainian music producer Vitalii Chovnyk has broken his silence to accuse staff at a Lviv hospital of gross medical negligence and falsifying official records.
Chovnyk spoke out after his wife, the popular Ukrainian singer Iryna Fedyshyn, lost their unborn daughter at 35 weeks of pregnancy during an emergency at St. Anne Hospital in the western Ukrainian city.
The grieving producer publicly named several medical professionals involved in the care of his wife, including the doctor who monitored her pregnancy, the obstetrician who carried out a home visit, and the facility's chief administrator.
Fedyshyn subsequently suffered life-threatening complications that required the emergency surgical removal of her uterus, according to reporting by the Ukrainian news agency UNIAN.
Aching pain and delayed intervention
Chovnyk explained that the medical crisis began when Fedyshyn experienced persistent aching pain in her lower abdomen during the final weeks of her pregnancy.
She immediately contacted Khrystyna Olehivna Melnyk, the physician responsible for overseeing her prenatal care throughout the pregnancy.
According to Chovnyk, Melnyk initially instructed the singer to take magnesium suppositories and remain in bed rather than directing her to a hospital for urgent clinical evaluation.
Nearly five hours passed while Fedyshyn remained in pain, during which Melnyk advised the use of Viburcol suppositories before ultimately directing the couple to another practitioner.
Chovnyk questioned why Melnyk failed to sound the alarm when the abdominal pain continued unabated after the first hour, asking why a supervising physician with clinical training would shift responsibility instead of ordering an immediate examination.
He demanded to know whether the management of St. Anne Hospital had conducted any formal evaluation into Melnyk's conduct, noting that administrators had maintained complete public silence regarding her role in the care plan.
Midnight home visit without equipment
Following Melnyk's guidance, Fedyshyn reached out to Olha Ivanivna Koval, the 62-year-old obstetrician selected to deliver the child.
The couple had placed their trust in Koval because she had previously delivered their son Oleh and possessed decades of specialised obstetrical experience.
Chovnyk noted that Koval had spoken warmly about delivering Fedyshyn's baby, expressing a desire to take celebratory photographs with the newborn before retiring from medical practice.
When Fedyshyn phoned to explain her worsening symptoms, Koval told her that she lived on an adjacent street and offered to conduct an examination at their residence.
Chovnyk emphasised that his wife had not requested a domestic call, but accepted the doctor's own initiative to save precious time during the late night hours, prompting Chovnyk to drive and collect her personally.
The examination itself, Chovnyk said, fell alarmingly short of standard medical protocol for a patient in late pregnancy experiencing acute abdominal distress.
Koval arrived at their residence entirely empty-handed, bringing no diagnostic instruments to measure Fedyshyn's blood pressure or monitor the fetal heartbeat.
After visually observing Fedyshyn's abdomen, Koval asked whether the household had medical gloves available so that she could perform an internal examination.
Chovnyk located a pair of gloves, after which Koval inspected the singer, declared that she saw nothing critical, advised her to continue taking Viburcol, and assured the couple that everything would be fine.
Falsified hospital records and missing hours
The couple soon realised that the situation was catastrophic, forcing them to rush to St. Anne Hospital in Lviv.
Upon arrival, Chovnyk alleged, hospital staff engaged in blatant document falsification to conceal delays in treatment.
Medical admission forms recorded their time of arrival as 4:55 a.m., even though the couple had arrived at the facility at 3:55 a.m., creating an unexplained discrepancy of a full hour.
Chovnyk said he was so overcome with despair and fury when presented with the inaccurate paperwork that he tore up the documents on the spot.
Further inspection of the clinical chart revealed additional fabrications, including a claim that Fedyshyn had been transported into the facility on a gurney, whereas she had actually walked through the doors under her own strength.
Chovnyk expressed intense anger that administrative staff approached his wife with a thick packet of consent documents to sign just minutes after she underwent major surgery, before she had even regained consciousness from general anesthesia.
Contradictory statements over doctor dismissal
The producer also challenged public claims made by hospital director Svitlana Havryliuk, who appeared across national television broadcasts to announce that the hospital had terminated an employee.
Chovnyk pointed out that Koval herself had visited Fedyshyn's hospital room shortly after the operation, where she admitted her grave professional error and stated that she was resigning voluntarily.
He questioned why Havryliuk was taking credit for firing Koval while simultaneously praising the surgical team for saving his wife's life.
Chovnyk noted that the emergency surgery had actually been performed by Koval herself, pointing out the administrative contradiction in thanking a doctor on one hand while claiming to dismiss her on the other.
He also disclosed a private comment made by Koval, who allegedly told Fedyshyn that without her intervention, there would have been no qualified medical personnel available at the facility to operate at all.
Chovnyk observed that this admission matched the complete disorganisation and confusion he personally witnessed within the maternity department that night, leading him to ask publicly whether Havryliuk should resign from her leadership post.
Calls for systemic healthcare reform
The tragedy has resonated deeply across Ukraine, where Fedyshyn is celebrated for her extensive musical career, numerous regional concert tours, and family-oriented public life.
The singer had previously shared her own harrowing chronology of the ordeal, detailing how the loss of her child at 35 weeks led to surgical complications and a subsequent hysterectomy.
A hysterectomy in late pregnancy is typically performed as an emergency measure of last resort to stem catastrophic hemorrhage and preserve the mother's life.
Despite the immense personal grief and physical trauma inflicted on his household, Chovnyk insisted that their public disclosures were not motivated by a desire for personal vengeance.
Instead, he stressed that his family demanded complete transparency, official accountability for every practitioner involved, and genuine systemic changes within the Ukrainian maternity hospital system to ensure that no other family suffers a similar loss.
