After a Nurse’s Mistake During Jaundice Treatment Left a 3-Day-Old Baby with Life-Changing Injuries, the Newborn His Mother Rejected Finally Found Hope
Born healthy and full of promise on November 16, 2014, Matvey Zakharenko entered the world in Tula, Russia (roughly two hours south of Moscow). His mother, 19-year-old Ekaterina (Katya) Zakharenko, gave birth to a boy weighing about three kilograms with no apparent congenital issues. Like many newborns, however, Matvey developed jaundice—a common condition causing yellowing of the skin and eyes due to elevated bilirubin levels.
Doctors prescribed standard phototherapy (light therapy), in which the infant lies under a special lamp for periods of time. On November 19, when Matvey was just three days old, a nurse placed him under the lamp, covered the device with a cloth, diaper, or towel in violation of safety protocols, and left the room. The covered lamp overheated, the bulb exploded or the device caught fire, and burning material fell onto the baby. Matvey remained exposed for approximately 10–12 minutes before staff responded to his cries or the fire alarm.
He suffered severe burns covering roughly 70–75% of his body surface, along with damage to internal organs (particularly the respiratory tract). He was urgently transferred to a specialized burn center in Moscow (the Speransky center), where he underwent numerous surgeries and intensive treatment. Against early expectations, he survived.
When his young mother learned the full extent of the injuries and the lifelong care that would be required, she ultimately refused to take him home and relinquished parental rights. Reports indicate she was overwhelmed by the medical, financial, and emotional burden; the biological father had already been absent. Matvey was left without parental care.
The case drew significant media and public attention in Russia. Accountability was limited: a department head (Galina Sundeeva) received a prison sentence related to negligence, while the nurse involved faced disciplinary measures or a case that was later affected by amnesty; broader systemic responsibility remained contested.
Volunteers, hospitals, human-rights advocates, and prospective adoptive parents stepped forward. After a contested legal process involving multiple applicants (including a temporary attempt by the biological mother to reclaim him once the story became widely known), Matvey was adopted by a woman named Svetlana. She publicly shared updates about his progress, noting that the formal adoption was a formality after the family had already formed a bond.
In the years that followed, Matvey continued to require surgeries and rehabilitation, including management of facial injuries (such as a prosthetic nose in some reports). By the time he was several years old, updates from his adoptive family described him as a resilient, smiling child who loved drawing, music, and learning new skills despite ongoing medical challenges. His story shifted from one of tragedy and abandonment to one of survival and a second chance at a loving home.
Sources for this account include contemporary Russian reporting (including Tula News, Rambler/Lenta.ru, and related local coverage from 2014–2016), as well as English-language summaries based on those primary reports (such as Newsner’s detailed 2020 overview of the case and its aftermath). Details of the exact sequence of the fire and degrees of individual legal responsibility vary slightly across accounts, but the core facts of the phototherapy accident, the extent of the burns, the maternal relinquishment, and the subsequent adoption are consistently documented.
