Doctors in Armenia on Tuesday fought to save the life of a 6-month-old infant from Gyumri who was gravely wounded in an armed attack that left his parents, grandparents, aunt and 2-year-old sister dead.
Seryozha Avetisian underwent surgery in a Gyumri hospital on Monday shortly after being found stabbed in the chest in the family’s house. The five other family members were shot and killed in their beds.
The baby boy was transported to the Surp Astvatsamayr hospital in Yerevan the following day while remaining connected to a life-support system.
“The child’s condition was and remains extremely severe,” said Nikolay Dallakian, the hospital director who escorted Seryozha during the nearly two-hour journey from Gyumri. Dallakian said the transfer to Yerevan was necessary to “make his further treatment maximally effective.”
Dallakian said that although the stab wounds did not damage any vital organs, the orphaned baby lost a lot of blood and caught a cold because he received first medical aid only several hours after the bloodbath, which was apparently carried out by a Russian soldier serving in Gyumri.
Law-enforcement authorities believe that the soldier attacked the family, for still unknown reasons, early in the morning. The Avetisians’ dead and injured bodies were discovered at around noon.
Armenian Health Minister Armen Muradian personally oversaw the efforts to save Seryozha’s life. “The child has been transferred to a more well-equipped medical center,” Muradian told reporters at Surp Astvatsamayr.
“We have convened a meeting of our leading [medical] specialists,” said Muradian. “A second meeting will take place this afternoon. I hope that our efforts … will prove successful.”