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Latvian Doctor Refuses to Examine Child for Speaking Russian

© Flickr / Alex ProimosA child with a severe neurological disorder was denied a proper medical check-up in one of Latvia’s hospitals due to her cultural background – she just happened to be a Russian-speaking Latvian and made a mistake by addressing her doctor in Russian.
A child with a severe neurological disorder was denied a proper medical check-up in one of Latvia’s hospitals due to her cultural background – she just happened to be a Russian-speaking Latvian and made a mistake by addressing her doctor in Russian. - Sputnik International
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A child with a severe neurological disorder was denied a proper medical check-up in one of Latvia’s hospitals due to her cultural background – she just happened to be a Russian-speaking Latvian and made a mistake by addressing her doctor in Russian.

Being a Russian can be a problem when getting a medical exam in the office of neurologist Guntis Rozentals in one of Latvia's hospitals, the mother of a little girl, Diana Skaburska-Zakroya, wrote on her Facebook account.

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According to Skaburska-Zakroya, when her daughter asked Rozentals if she could converse in Russian during the medical exam since she understood it better than Latvian, the neurologist started insulting his little patient.

"The doctor began telling improper things to my child, made accusations about her lack of knowledge of the official state language, questioned her grades at school (called the child a failing student)," the woman said.

When the girl didn't quite understand another one of the doctor's question in Latvian and asked to repeat it again, he suggested she pack up and "go back to Russia."

Rozentals failed to complete a proper medical exam, telling his patient that she could get results and recommendations from a doctor at another a clinic.

Skaburska-Zakroya said her daughter suffers from a severe neurological disorder and they came to the medical clinic for a check-up trying to see how they could treat the illness. Instead what they got was a chauvinistic rant from one of the very doctors who was supposed to help her.

People of Russian descent make up almost 30 percent of Latvia's population, while Russian is the second most used language in Latvia with 34 percent of the country's entire population preferring to speak Russian at home.     

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