Story By: Feza Uzay, Sub-Editor: Marija Stojkoska, Agency: Newsflash
This is the moment a top Russian ballet dancer fell off his scooter while drunk and hit his head against the pavement, leaving him in a coma and fighting for his life.
According to the report of the local news website Vesti, the incident took place in the late evening in Lermontovsky Prospekt in the Russian city of St Petersburg on 12th May.
The surveillance camera footage shows that the Mariinsky Theater ballet dancer David Zaleev, 31, travelling on the electric scooter as he approaches three people walking on the pavement.
He manages to weave around one but the handlebars strike one of the two people walking slightly further on, sending the scooter going one way and him onto the floor, banging his head on the asphalt and leaving him unconscious and critically injured.
David was hospitalized at the Mariinsky Hospital with a severe head injury which he received due to the fall.
Local news website Lenta reported that the artist was heavily drunk at the time. It is specified that 2.7 ppm of alcohol was found in his blood.
David was operated on, and a hematoma in his skull was removed. Now the artist is been put into an artificial coma and is also being artificially ventilated.
No statement has yet been made about David’s latest health status.
David Zaleev graduated from the Bashkir Choreographic College and the Vaganova Academy of Russian Ballet. He has the title Honored Artist of the Republic of North Ossetia – Alania.
He got the 2nd prize in the XII International Competition of Ballet Dancers ‘Arabesque’ in 2012. He won the theatrical award of the Republic of Tatarstan ‘Tintin’ in the category ‘Best performer in musical theatre’ in 2013.
David has been with the Mariinsky Theater troupe since 2013. He performed parts in Swan Lake, Giselle, Sleeping Beauty, Don Quixote and other ballets.