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LONDON - Poisoned Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko has suffered heart failure and is now on a ventilator, a friend said late last night (NZ time).
"He went into a cardiac failure overnight and the hospital put him on artificial heart support," said Alex Goldfarb, a friend of the former KGB spy.
University College Hospital, London, said: : "Mr Litvinenko's condition has deteriorated overnight. He is now in a very serious condition and remains in intensive care."
The 41-year-old critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin says he fell ill after meeting two Russians at a hotel.
He had been investigating the killing of Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya, also a vocal critic of Putin, who was gunned down at her Moscow flat on October 7.
Earlier Goldfarb told British Broadcasting Corporation radio that Litvinenko's wife was rushing to the hospital after Litvinenko suffered a catastrophic fall of his blood pressure.
The BBC also reported that three unexplained "objects of dense matter" - one of which had seemingly ruptured - had been found in Litvinenko's stomach. Goldfarb said an x-ray was taken on Wednesday, but no one had told Litvinenko's wife of any objects being found.
"Our investigations into the cause of his condition continue and we are not willing to make any further statement on this until we have more concrete information," the hospital said.
Litvinenko's friends accuse the Kremlin of orchestrating a plot to poison him, but Russia has dismissed as "nonsense" claims that its agents poisoned their former colleague.
Litvinenko has lost all his hair and is suffering major organ failure. The toxicologist treating him had said the poison may have been laced with a radioactive substance to render it more lethal.
- REUTERS
