LA hospital confirms women poisoned by thallium

Los Angeles, Mar 10: A Los Angeles hospital has confirmed that two US women who became ill during a trip to their native Russia, prompting investigations by both countries, were suffering from thallium poisoning.

Cedars-Sinai Medical Center said Marina Kovalevsky and her daughter, Yana, were receiving ''appropriate treatment'' for thallium poisoning. They have been listed in fair but stable condition.

''Their date of discharge has not been determined but they are expected to remain in the hospital this weekend,'' Cedars-Sinai spokeswoman Sandy Van said in a statement.

The US State Department asked Moscow on Thursday to investigate the suspected poisoning of the Kovalevskys with thallium, a highly toxic metal that can cause a slow, painful death. The two women were initially hospitalized in Moscow and returned to Los Angeles on Wednesday.

Thallium was originally suspected in the murder in London last year of former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko, which sparked worldwide condemnation. He was later found to have died of poisoning by polonium.

There has been no official explanation of how or why the two women, who according to family members do not work for either government and have no known political or business ties to Russia, were poisoned.

Russian media said Marina Kovalevsky and her daughter emigrated to the United States from the Soviet Union in the 1980s but frequently visited there. On the most recent trip, they arrived in Moscow in mid-February and became ill about a week later.

''There was no reason in the world to poison Marina and Yana. They were not involved in anything at all,'' Marina's brother, Leon Peck, told the Los Angeles Times in an interview.

Peck told the newspaper that, because the Russian hospital where his sister and niece were being treated had no antidote for thallium poisoning, he flew there with one called Prussian Blue and, after they began taking it, saw an immediate improvement in their condition.

Reuters