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The ICU doctor who treated the novichok poisoning victims has revealed he feared assassins might come to the hospital to kill them.
Consultant James Haslam said there were armed guards placed at the ward where Yulia and her father Sergei Skripal - a Russian double agent - were being treated and that this was a source of worry for the medical team.
Mr Skripal and his daughter were found ill on a bench near Salisbury Cathedral on March 4, 2018 after being poisoned with nerve agent novichok.
Speaking to the Mirror for the first time since the incident in 2018, Dr Haslam said: 'We had armed guards at the end of our ICU. Is anybody going to come back and finish our patients off?
'Could we get caught in the cross fire?
'That was certainly something that we worried about. Having been chucked in the deep end, I had to learn on the job how these evil toxic substances work.
James Haslam the ICU doctor who treated the novichok poisoning victims revealed he feared assassins might come to the hospital to kill them while they were trying to save their lives
Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia were found on a bench together close to Salisbury Cathedral on the afternoon of March 4 having been poisoned with nerve-agent novichok
'That's why I didn't sleep much that first week, every sinew was straining for that.'
Dr Haslam told the newspaper that the pair were initially treated as though they were suffering from opioid toxicity but that he knew in his gut this wasn't right.
He said: 'They were severely critically ill, developing multiple organ failure. I thought at this stage it was likely to be as assassination attempt.'
Dr Haslam said he contacted the UK's Chemical Biological, Radiological and Nuclear (CBRN) Regiment who confirmed the symptoms were consistent with poisoning by a military-grade nerve agent.
The efforts of Dr Haslam and the medics at Salisbury District Hospital form part of Discovery Plus documentary Secrets of the Salisbury Poisonings, to be screened on Boxing Day, which delves into the attack.
During the 90-minute show, it delves into the work Dr James Haslam carried out to nurse DS Bailey and the Skripals back to health.
Dr Haslam says that armed guards were on duty at Salisbury District Hospital (pictured)
Officer Nick Bailey (pictured) who came into contact with the military-grade chemical after he was sent to the Skripals' home in the city – where it had been sprayed on the front door handle
The programme also features the poisoning and recovery of officer Nick Bailey who came into contact with the military-grade chemical after he was sent to the Skripals' home in the city – where it had been sprayed on the front door handle.
Mr Bailey said he said he returned home after a 16-hour shift sweating and exhausted. The following day he woke hallucinating and sweating in what he calls 'a tsunami of pure heat and fire' following which he was admitted to A&E.
Four months
