Movie buffs will remember the iconic scene in Terminator 2 when Linda Hamilton, as Sarah Connor, broke out of a secure hospital. Now, a woman in Saint Petersburg has copied it, in real life.
Better still, she pulled off the trick without any robotic assistance. Suffering from a sore throat after arriving from China, Alla Ilyina had been sent to the Botkinskaya Clinical Infectious Diseases Hospital for two weeks of quarantine.
But she didn't fancy it, believing that the doctors were violating her rights. So, the 32-year-old housewife conjured up an escape plan, by breaking through an electronic lock.
Ilyina explained that she left Hainan on January 30 and a day later passed tests in the Russian Far Eastern city of Khabarovsk, where she was waved through as Coronavirus free. Officials were not taking any chances, however, and on February 1, she was again screened in Saint Petersburg, with no problems.
"On the 4th, I had a sore throat, there was no temperature," she told Moscow daily RBK. "On February 6, they took me to the hospital, promised it was only for one day. On the 7th the doctor came and said: 'Congratulations, you are healthy, the tests have confirmed this! But we will keep you here for two weeks.'" Fed up, she made her dash for freedom later the same day.
"An electromagnetic lock was installed on the door. I took apart the box and short-circuited it," she elaborated. "(The) door opened. I packed my things and went down the hall to the elevator. It turned out that the door was locked."
In a panic, she then began to run along the corridor, eventually finding a way out. Now, the Health Committee of St. Petersburg insists she will be fined. Nevertheless, Ilyina told RBK she had no regrets. "There's just no way I would sit in a cage for 14 days — no thanks, I was not given the right to refuse to stay there," she argued.
"The patient was told by the chief medical officer that she should be monitored and treated at the hospital for 14 days," said Health Committee spokeswoman Olga Ryabinina. "She did not comply. So, a telegram has been sent to the police asking them to hold her accountable."
She could face a fine of up to 500 rubles (around $8).The boss of the hospital, Aleksei Yakovlev, wants authorities to go further: "If she thinks she can get away with a 500 ruble fine and no other consequences for this, she is profoundly mistaken," he insisted.
For her part, Ilyina plans to contact the Prosecutor's Office and the local Investigative Committee with a complaint about the behavior of the medical staff at Botkinskaya.
Ilyina has become something of a hero to others in quarantine because of coronavirus. St Petersburg news resource Fontanka reports that they have even written a song about her, with simple lyrics: "I want to be like Alla, like Alla, like Alla. She escaped from Botkin, ran away, ran away."
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