{"id":111674,"date":"2021-04-08T01:17:50","date_gmt":"2021-04-08T01:17:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.radiofree.org\/?p=183568"},"modified":"2021-04-08T01:17:50","modified_gmt":"2021-04-08T01:17:50","slug":"navalny-has-two-herniated-disks-numbness-in-his-hands-attorney-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2021\/04\/08\/navalny-has-two-herniated-disks-numbness-in-his-hands-attorney-says\/","title":{"rendered":"Navalny Has Two Herniated Disks, Numbness In His Hands, Attorney Says"},"content":{"rendered":"
Jailed Russian opposition politician Aleksei Navalny has two herniated disks in his back and has started to lose feeling in his hands, one of his attorneys said after visiting him in prison.<\/p>\n
Olga Mikhailova told the Dozhd television channel that Navalny has refused the prison paramedic\u2019s prescription of the anti-inflammatory drug diclofenac and a nicotinic acid — remedies that she said have not been used in medicine for 30 years.<\/p>\n
Navalny, 44, has complained of severe back pain and leg numbness for nearly three weeks, his allies have said. He had an MRI scan on March 24, and prison authorities told the Interfax news agency the next day that his condition was deemed \u201cstable, satisfactory.\u201d<\/p>\n
Navalny relayed the result of the MRI scan to his attorneys during their visit on April 7, and Mikhailova said they show he has two herniated disks and a bulging disk.<\/p>\n
She added that Navalny\u2019s high fever has subsided since he was moved to the prison sick ward on April 5 with symptoms of a respiratory illness. He still has a cough, she said.<\/p>\n
An initial test for exposure to coronavirus came back negative, Mikhailova said. She said they were waiting results of a second.<\/p>\n
Mikhailova also said Navalny\u2019s condition may have been exacerbated by the poor medical care provided to him in the prison colony. She said she believed that prison authorities were afraid that a visiting specialist would show that \u201ctheir awful treatment led to the deterioration in his health.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mikhailova and Vadim Kobzev, another member of Navalny’s legal team, confirmed that Navalny remained in the medical unit of the colony.<\/p>\n