Russian Military Doctors Save Life of RT Correspondent Injured in Syria - Defence Ministry

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Russian military medical workers have saved the life of Wafa Shabrouney, a female journalist of RT Arabic who has been injured in the Syrian province of Idlib, the Russian Defence Ministry said on Thursday.

"By the decision of Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu, military doctors of the Russian forces in Syria have promptly come to the Hama city hospital, where Wafa Shabrouney has been taken, to assist their Syrian colleagues through providing consultations," the Defence Ministry said in a press release.

Shabrouney was then taken to Russia's Hmeymim airbase on a transport helicopter, which was also carrying a team of military doctors.

"Over the night, Shabrouney received comprehensive treatment. The doctors held two telemedicine consultations with leading experts of the Kirov Military Medical Academy and the Burdenko Main Military Clinical Hospital," the ministry added.

Later on Thursday, RT and Sputnik Editor-in-Chief Margarita Simonyan thanked Defence Minister Shoigu and the Russian military for saving the journalist's life.

"I want to bow thanks to our military and personally to Sergei Shoigu for the rescue of Wafa. This is simply a miracle. Yesterday, when our journalist was seriously wounded as a result of a mine explosion near Idlib, where there is no adequate medical service and where local doctors assessed her chance to survive as very low as she had already lost consciousness — Shoigu sent Russian military doctors within minutes to help the Syrians at the local hospital where Wafa was taken to," Simonyan wrote on her Telegram channel.

The correspondent's condition is now assessed as critical but stable. She may be taken to Russia to receive medical assistance there.

Shabrouney was gravely wounded on Wednesday in a mine explosion in the city of Maarat al-Numan.