Variations on the same procedure: The wife of a late Odrex client exposed the hospital’s falsification of medical records.

The widow of a patient of Odrex, a private Odesa hospital, handed over to the UNN news agency papers that, according to her, contain signs of falsification of medical documents after the death of her husband. The provided information shows different variants of one manipulation and inconsistencies in the description of complications of therapy.

The wife of the deceased patient Ihor Melai, who ended his life after therapy in the Odrex private hospital in Odessa, told the news agency UNN papers, which, according to her deep conviction, testify: the death of her beloved is not a fatal coincidence of circumstances, but the result of the decisions of the doctors of the medical institution. The information provided by the woman – reviews and internal documents of the clinic – reveal new details of the history of the treatment that ended fatally and the wife’s legal struggle for justice. Find out from the material what contradictions we saw in the provided medical report UNN.

Olga Melai’s husband was treated at Odrex private hospital in Odessa with a diagnosis of B-cell lymphoma. He was already undergoing a cycle of chemotherapy when the doctors suggested installing a subcutaneous pleural port – for more convenient drug administration and fewer punctures. According to Olga, this procedure was presented as low-traumatic, safe and quick: up to 30-45 minutes under local anesthesia.

Image from the Odrex clinic website

Before the manipulation began, Olga Melay’s husband signed papers in which he agreed to exactly this format of intervention – under intravenous anesthesia, without the use of artificial lung ventilation.

Olga Melai handed over the consent to the use of a specific type of anesthesia to the UNN news agency

However, the manipulation, which should have taken a little more than 45 minutes, turned into three hours. For so long, Olga Melai waited at the door of the operating room, without any explanation from Odrex. When the manipulation was over, the doctors assured that “everything went well” and that “a new life is beginning” for the patient.

A new life has not begun However, immediately after the manipulation, instead of the usual ward, Olga Melay’s husband ended up in the intensive care unit in serious condition. According to Olga, when she saw her husband for the first time after the “low-traumatic procedure”, he was not breathing on his own, his kidneys were not functioning, and the monitor by the bed was turned off – no pulse and saturation, only with a body temperature of about 33 degrees. At the same time, the doctors abruptly changed the conversation and warned that Ihor Melay might not live to see the morning. On the first day, five liters of liquid were pumped out of the patient’s chest.

“We signed an agreement for one thing – we were given another” The main question of this story – for what reasons did the condition of Olga Melai’s husband deteriorate sharply after the planned “low-traumatic procedure”? The answer lies in the medical reports – as it follows from the hospital papers, instead of the agreed intravenous anesthesia, the patient was given inhalation and intravenous anesthesia with artificial lung ventilation.

A review from the Odreks hospital, which states that a complex type of anesthesia was planned, the document was handed over to the UNN news agency by Olga Melai

Olga Melai emphasizes that neither she nor her husband was given permission for this type of anesthesia. This is also confirmed by financial receipts: the patient paid for a much simpler anesthetic support – without general anesthesia and mechanical ventilation.

At the same time, in medical reviews compiled after the death of the patient, this complex and risky type of anesthesia is presented as allegedly planned and coordinated, which, according to the widow, directly contradicts the signed permits and financial receipts.

Olga Melai – became a widow after her husband’s therapy in the “Odreks” hospital

Planned intervention, which in retrospect was called “urgent” In addition to the question of anesthesia, in the reviews of the hospital, manipulation is presented as urgent care. However, as Olha Melai assures, the actual circumstances of the therapy indicate otherwise – the manipulation was planned.

According to Olga Melai, this is evidenced by several circumstances at once: on the day of the manipulation, the patient underwent pre-operative tests, the pleural port itself was not available in the hospital, it was ordered for a specific date, and the installation itself had an auxiliary, not a vital, character. According to the widow, this directly contradicts the version about urgent manipulation, which appeared in the internal reviews of the hospital already after the death of the patient.

Port for chemotherapy

“Postoperative period without complications” Another significant inconsistency concerns the description of the patient’s postoperative condition. In the reviews of the hospital, it is stated that the postoperative period was allegedly without complications for the patient.

In fact, according to Olga Melay, after the manipulation, her husband was on artificial lung ventilation for three days, his kidneys failed, and vasopressors and other resuscitation drugs were used to support vital functions. At the same time, these critical complications are either not recorded at all in medical reports, or are reduced to general formulations.

The final shock, according to Olga Melai, came after receiving the discharge epicrisis. In the document, which was supposed to record the course of treatment in detail, the manipulation, which, according to the widow, was fatal for her husband, is described in one line: “The pleural port was installed” – without the date of the procedure, without the names of the performing doctors and without any description of the consequences.

Cardiac arrest In addition, Olga Melai is sure: during the manipulation, her husband had a cardiac arrest. And this fact, in her opinion, “Odreks” hid both from the family and from the court. According to her, this is indicated by the husband’s long stay in the operating room, his critical condition immediately after the intervention, the indicators of the monitors in the intensive care unit and the sharp change in the doctors’ forecasts. At the same time, cardiac complications are not mentioned in any of the hospital’s official documents.

Chemotherapy after resuscitation After three days in the intensive care unit, Igor Melai’s condition began to slowly stabilize. It was at this moment, the widow assures, that the hospital decided to continue the course of chemotherapy, despite the recent serious condition. After the next administration of drugs, the man’s condition worsened sharply, and later the hospital refused further therapy. Patient died

“There was a chance for remission. But this “small manipulation” destroyed all efforts,” says Olga Melai.

Thus, the discharge epicrisis, which the family received after therapy, and the hospital’s internal reviews, compiled after the patient’s death, contain different and sometimes mutually exclusive descriptions of the same events. According to Olga Melai, this inconsistency in recording the key stages of treatment may indicate the falsification of medical reports by Odrex hospital and attempts to hide the truth.

Reviews of “your own for your own” A separate set of documents that raise questions for the widow are reviews and the protocol of the Odrex medical board, dated October 2025, that is, already after the patient’s death. In these documents, the hospital concludes that medical care was provided in accordance with clinical protocols, and all recorded deficiencies are reduced to “minor registration errors.”

The document was handed over to the UNN news agency by Olga Melay

At the same time, it is in these reviews that there are key formulations that are not found in the discharge epicrisis issued to the family: details of anesthesia, treatment of the manipulation as urgent, and statements about the absence of complications. According to Olga Melai, it gives the feeling that the full version of events was formed in retrospect – already after the death of her husband and the start of legal proceedings.

Separately, the widow draws attention to the fact that all reviews are signed by doctors who were or are in professional interaction with the “Odreks” hospital. In her opinion, this calls into question the independence of evaluations and turns reviews not into an objective analysis of treatment, but into a justification of the hospital’s actions.

Instead of a conclusion For the entire period of treatment, the Melai family paid the hospital more than 2.5 million hryvnias, but for the widow, this issue has long ceased to be financial. We are talking about decisions made without the patient’s consent, about an intervention that turned from planned to fatal, and about medical reporting, in which key stages of treatment either disappear or are changed in such a way that it would be beneficial for Odrex Hospital.

Currently, the story of the Melay family is the subject of criminal proceedings. According to the data UNNcriminal proceedings No. 42025163030000200 were opened based on Olga Melay’s statement regarding manipulation imposed by hospital doctors and, in her opinion, unnecessary pleural punctures, after which her husband died. The proceedings are also being investigated under Part 3 of Art. 190 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine – fraud committed during a state of war or state of emergency, which caused great harm to the victim.

Today, Olga Melay is trying to prove in the courts what, according to her, was never honestly recorded in the medical documents: that her husband’s death was not an inevitable consequence of an illness, but the result of the decisions of “Odreks”, which never received a proper legal and medical evaluation.