Woman raped by anaesthetist shortly after breast surgery

A woman who was allegedly 'raped by an anaesthetist' while recovering from breast surgery says she was unable to scream due to the anesthetics.

Erika Bykova, a fashion designer, said she felt helpless when Dr Yury Chernikov, 59, allegedly began raping her minutes after she came round from the operation.

The 35-year-old waived her right to anonymity and told Russian TV audience she was moaning in a bid to stop the alleged attack.

Chernikov admits to having sex with the married woman minutes after her surgery but claimed it was consensual, and alleged in a statement to police that the woman patient had told him she was “feeling good”.

But the mother-of-one patient said

I was moaning. But I was moaning because I couldn't scream. It was the very first surgery in my life. I saw him before the surgery.

He came to my ward to talk about the results of my pre-operation checks.

My husband was against the surgery - he believed that I was beautiful enough already.

I was shaking crazily after the operation, and I heard a voice telling me: ‘Girl, everything will be okay, everything will be fine.

He was touching me, it was the anaesthetist’s voice. Then he allowed himself to do things that a doctor must not do.

He was commenting on what he was doing. He raped me. I was in a helpless state.

At that moment I could understand everything but my eyelids were very heavy, I even couldn’t open them fully.

I tried to push him away with my legs but I couldn’t do that.

She was unable to scream for help, and they were alone in an ante-room to the operating theatre, she said.

I absolutely trusted the doctor," Erika continued. I trusted him with my life and body.

For a long time I couldn't pull myself together and talk to my husband about it.

I even filed a complaint to the Investigative Committee (in charge of probing serious crimes) and asked detectives not to interrogate my husband - at least for some time.

I had gone to the police station and filed the complaint to the Interior Ministry in (Samara) the very day when I was released from the clinic.

She alleged:

He offered me money - he didn't specify how much - to take back my complaint.

Hitting back at his claim that she had consented to sex, she said she told her friend she had been raped immediately afterwards - and preserved the man’s “biomaterial” to pass to the police forensic service.

She said:

I am sorry for sharing these details (but) I am speaking out to help women in the same situation who cannot talk about it to anyone.

Her long term aim was to “create a community where women could share what happened and protect themselves.

Erika's unnamed husband - the father of her five year old son - has not commented on the case.