A St. Petersburg man`s life turned into a bureaucratic nightmare after a clinic doctor informed him he was officially dead. Initially dismissing it as an error, his reality soon shifted as banks blocked his cards and his employer fired him. The shocking truth emerged: he had been mistakenly declared deceased because a stolen passport, bearing his name, was found on a dead body.
For two months, Igor Baikov, a resident of St. Petersburg, has been fruitlessly attempting to convince banks and hospitals that he is still alive. The ordeal began in early summer when he visited a polyclinic and was casually informed that he had died a couple of months prior. Both the doctor and Baikov initially dismissed it as a simple error. Life continued as normal until Igor was declared «dead» by banks, the social fund, and other official institutions. Here’s what the protagonist himself recounted:
“Initially, I went to see a general practitioner at Polyclinic No. 37. She told me that according to the public services website, I had died on April 6th. She’s been my doctor for 22 years and knows me very well. She asked, ‘How could this happen?’ I checked on the computer, and it stated I had died at Mariinsky Hospital, even though I wasn`t there at the time. Yes, I was listed as deceased there on April 6th. After July 2nd, my card was blocked. I was going down into the metro that morning, heading to work, and the ATM wouldn`t take my card. I went to Sberbank in the evening, and they informed me that I was officially registered as deceased.”
Igor`s veteran`s benefits were halted, and his employer dismissed him, citing an unwillingness to deal with problems caused by an «officially dead» driver. Later, at the registry office, Igor Baikov was even handed his own death certificate. When he tried to inquire at the hospital about how and why he supposedly died, he was directed to the police.
It was eventually discovered that four years ago, Baikov`s passport had been stolen, forcing him to obtain a new one. The person who actually died was someone who had been using his old, stolen document.
Igor`s lawyer, Vera Safonova, initially disbelieved the story, but after seeing a photo of Igor holding his own death certificate, she decided to help:
“I sent inquiries to funeral services and other places, and we managed to halt the burial of this `fake` Baikov. Otherwise, he would have been buried, as a burial team had already been formed for this ‘Baikov.’ This entire matter will now be investigated — who provided this passport to the deceased, or if the deceased himself lived under that name, or if someone needed the deceased person to have Baikov’s passport. It’s possible this was a criminal body. This story could become very high-profile. The main thing is that the Investigative Committee has seized the documents of this deceased person listed under the surname Baikov. For now, Baikov has calmed down, but he is not yet happy, because all his original documents have been declared invalid. Everywhere he goes, he is still ‘deceased.’ The next steps involve restoring his status-quo, getting a court order, and ‘bringing him back to life.’”
For now, at least, the situation has moved beyond a stalemate.
