Four days after having her tonsils removed on January 28, four year-old Melena Martirosyan died.

The operation took place at the Hrazdan Medical Center. The operating physician, Hayk Afyan, seems to have disappeared and is not answering telephone calls from Melena’s distraught parents.

Hrazdan Medical Center Director Robert Sahakyan says that the girl was admitted on January 26 for a routine surgical operation and that tests were conducted. The girl was given a general anesthetic.

He says the operation went without a hitch and that Melena felt fine in post-op. Sahakyan says that the parents requested that the girl be released from the hospital and that Dr. Afyan consented. There seemed to be no reason not to.

Director Sahakyan says that the doctor instructed the parents as to what the girl could eat and gave his telephone number, just in case.

Gevorg Martirosyan, Melena’s father, confirms that Afyan checked his daughter on January 27.

Gevorg adds somewhat reluctantly, that the doctor called him into his office after the operation and told him that the bill came to 30,000 AMD.

“I told the doctor that I only had 20,000 on me and that I would pay the balance the next day. He agreed and said that he’d be at work after 2pm,” says Gevorg.

According to Narineh, the girl's mother, Dr. Afyan arrived earlier than planned the next day. When Narineh told him that her husband hadn’t yet arrived, the doctor left the room without checking on the little girl.

Narineh then called her husband at work. Gevorg arrived at the hospital soon afterwards and paid Afyan the 10,000 balance.

“I asked how Melena was doing. He told me to bring the child to his office for a check-up,” says the father.

Director Sahakyan says this is also normal procedure if the patient is alert and active, arguing that a hospital room check-up requires that the necessary instruments be brought in.

Gevorg claims that his daughter, contrary to what Afyan told the director, didn’t feel so well the day after the operation.

The father cradled his daughter and took her to the doctor’s office. The only “medical” instrument on hand was a regular kitchen spoon.

Dr. Afyan took a look into the child’s mouth and said that all was normal, says Gevorg, and that Melena could be released.

“No one came to take her temperature, not the doctor or the nurse. We had to ask for a thermometer ourselves. The nurse brusquely handed us one but it was broken. It kept registering 35 no matter how hard we shook it,” says Gevorg.

The father says the child’s stomach was hurting and asked that the doctor gave her a shot of pain killer, which he did.

At home, Melena’s stomach ache and nausea continued. The parents figured they were just post-op symptoms and nothing to get alarmed about, just like Afyan had told them.

Melena’s parents also say they followed the doctor’s meal instructions to the letter.

The next day, Melena experienced dark blood oozing from her mouth and nose. Her mother rushed her to the hospital.

She claims that no one offered any assistance; neither the nurses of Surgical Unit Chief Edward Melikyan, who was on site.

The mother says that one of the nurses even remarked, “You bring a dead child here and expect us to save her?”

Melikyan doesn’t dispute the fact that he was present when the child was brought in.

“Her pupils were dilated and her heart had stopped. I applied CPR. The post-mortem showed that blood had collected in the girl’s stomach causing the gag reflex. It had also blocked her trachea,” says Melikyan.

While Melikyan claims they did all they could to save Melena, the girl’s father believes that his daughter was still alive when she arrived.

Melena passed away on a cot in the hospital’s reception room.

Hospital Director Sahakyan suspects that Melena’s parents fed her some coarse food at home which caused the sudden turn for the worse.

“The food must have caused some slight injury to the membranes, causing the blood flow. It must have been going on for days,” says Sahakyan.

The parents refute this charge.

We tried to reach Dr. Melikyan for some answers; especially why he stated that Melena’s post-op nausea and stomach ache were normal symptoms after surgery. He wasn’t at the hospital and wasn’t answering his phone.

Director Sahakyan told us that a medical inquiry had been convened to examine the matter.

Results from forensics are still not available. The Kotayk Police are investigating as well.

PS – Melena’s parents say the press wrongly reported that the girl was five, rather than four. Besides her tonsils, the doctor also removed a nose polyp.