A criminal investigation is underway in Russia after surgical staff gave a woman a solution containing formaldehyde instead of saline during what was supposed to have been a routine surgery.

Ekaterina Fedyaeva, just 28 years old, was in hospital last month in Ulyanovsk, about 700 kilometers east of Moscow.  Doctors were scheduled to perform a laparoscopic operation to remove ovarian cysts. 

At some point during the operation, the medical staff gave Fedyaeva formalin, which contains formaldehyde, instead of a saline drip - formaldehyde is used to preserve dead bodies, but is extremely toxic.  They realized their mistake about two minutes later as her organs began to shut down, but they never told the family about the error. 

Her horrified mother Galina Baryshnikova said the formalin "was simply eroding her body from the inside" and accused the medical staff of murder.  "People who performed the surgery already knew that they infused something wrong," she said.  "They needed to take some urgent measures, but they did nothing."  She pleaded with the staff to do something as her daughter convulsed for two days in the hospital bed, but claims she was told to go home. “I think they just wanted me to go away and to hide everything," Baryshnikova said.

After two days, Ms. Fedyaeva was flown to a more sophisticated facility in Moscow, but at that point nothing could stop the formaldehyde. 

Some members of the surgical team have been sacked.