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The hospital staff who treated Sergei and Yulia Skripal have said they were worried they would be killed by the nerve agent that poisoned the former Russian spy and his daughter.
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They have also revealed they didn’t believe the father and daughter would survive.
Lorna Wilkinson, director of nursing at the hospital, told BBC Newsnight: “I suppose the key marker for me was when the PC [Nick Bailey] was admitted with symptoms – there was a real concern as to how big could this get.”
She said she remembered thinking: “‘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.”
Dr Stephen Jukes, an intensive care consultant, added: “When we first were aware this was a nerve agent we were expecting them not to survive. We would try all our therapies. We would ensure the best clinical care. But all the evidence was there that they would not survive.”
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Dr Duncan Murray, head of the department, said he had conversations with his staff about the night that he “could never have imagined in my wildest imagination having with anyone”. He said he owed the Skripals’ survival to “very good generic basic critical care” by the hospital team.
The three victims were heavily sedated and given drugs that boost the body’s production of enzymes to replace those poisoned by the nerve agent, according to The Independent.
All three victims have since been discharged from hospital.
18 March
Sergei Skripal discharged from hospital
Former Russian spy Sergei Skripal has been discharged from hospital, more than two months after being poisoned in an attack in Salisbury.
“He will be under armed guard 24 hours a day for the foreseeable future”, a source told the Daily Mail.
Detective Sergeant Nick Bailey, who was also exposed to novichok while investigating the attack, spent a couple of weeks in hospital before being discharged. Yulia Skripal was discharged last month and transferred to an unknown location.
A hospital spokesperson said that patient confidentiality prevented the sharing of detailed accounts of Skripal's condition or the treatment he had received, but added: “Treating people who are so acutely unwell, having been poisoned by nerve agents, requires stabilising them, keeping them alive until their bodies could produce more enzymes to replace those that had been poisoned.”
Salisbury District Hospital boss Cara Charles-Barks said that the recovery of all three victims was a tribute to "the hard work, skill and professionalism of our clinicians, who provide outstanding care to all our patients, day in and day out".
She added that this had been a "difficult time" for everyone involved in the incident. "I want to thank the public for their support, and I want to pay a special tribute to both the clinical staff here at the trust and those who work so hard behind the scenes. They’ve demonstrated the very best of the NHS.”
The UK government has blamed Russia for the attack, with Prime Minister Theresa May describing the incident as “brazen” and “despicable”, the BBC writes.
The Russian government has denied any involvement and accused Britain of inventing a “fake story”.
