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Russia: Theater Gas Was Fentanyl, Hostage Death Toll Rises Russia used a chemical compound that included the anesthetic fentanyl to incapacitate Chechen extremists — and their hostages — in a Moscow theater Saturday, Russian Health Minister Yuri Shevchenko said today (see GSN, Oct. 29). The compound would not have killed the hostages if they were not exhausted, dehydrated, hungry, unable to move and severely stressed, Shevchenko said. After much international speculation, this is the first Russian admission of the use of fentanyl in the raid that freed several hundred hostages (Judith Ingram, Associated Press, Oct. 30). Two hospitalized former hostages died yesterday, bringing the civilian death toll from the three-day siege to 119, Moscow’s chief medical officer Andrei Seltsovsky said. At least 116 of those died as a result of the chemical (News24.com, Oct. 30). Russian authorities pumped the chemical compound through the ventilation system before storming the theater; U.S. officials have said they believe the gas was an opiate, possibly fentanyl. Soldiers also killed 50 Chechen hostage-takers in the assault, Russian officials said. U.S. Ambassador to Russia Alexander Vershbow today criticized Russian officials’ refusal to tell doctors what chemical had affected the hostages. “We regret that the lack of information simply contributed to the confusion after the immediate operation to free the hostages was over,” Vershbow said. “It’s clear that perhaps with a little more information at least a few more of the hostages would have survived.” A Russian doctor who has been treating the freed hostages agreed that the lack of information has cost lives. The opiate is mostly harmless if used properly, but emergency responders at the scene “weren’t prepared for detoxification,” the doctor said. “If people were intubated and helped to breathe with artificial ventilation while still in the vehicles, almost everyone would have survived,” the doctor said. “Everyone brought to my hospital alive is still alive” (Baker/Glasser, Washington Post, Oct. 30).
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