KIEV, Jan. 10 – Ukrainian opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko, serving a seven-year sentence in a Kharkiv region prison, collapsed on December 6 and stayed unconscious for two hours before getting medical treatment, an ally of hers said Tuesday.

Oleksandr Turchynov, the No. 2 in Tymoshenko’s Batkivshchyna party, said she may have reacted to medication given to her by prison doctors to treat a suspected virus infection.

“Approximately at 22:30 PM, right after taking the virus medication, Yulia Volodymyrivna has lost consciousness,” Turchynov said. “The medication was provided by prison doctors.”

Prison authorities have never before reported any major aggravation in Tymoshenko’s health neither they have reported her losing consciousness while on a treatment from other any chronic illnesses.

The comment may explain a statement from the prison authorities on Saturday, December 7, that Tymoshenko had gone through medical testing in one of Kharkiv hospitals. Tymoshenko, who was said to have requested the tests, had been apparently found to be in good health, the authorities said.

Tymoshenko allies earlier reported that she had been suffering from acute back pain and also developed unexplained bruises all over her body while in custody since August 5, 2011.

“As of this time, Tymoshenko’s health appears to be in satisfactory shape,” the authorities said in a statement. “She is under constant supervision from a team of prison doctors and Healthcare Ministry officials.”

In another statement issued hours after Turchynov’s comments, the Healthcare Ministry reported that a team of doctors could not verify whether Tymoshenko had or had not collapsed without consciousness.

But the ministry against confirmed all medical tests had been implemented without delay and have no indications that any aggravation with Tymoshenko’s health had ever taken place.

Meanwhile, there are major gaps between Turchynov’s account of what had happened and what the Healthcare Ministry had indicated, suggesting one of them could be deliberately distorting the truth.

Turchynov said Tymoshenko was unconscious for almost two hours, from 22:30 to well over 24:00, until prison medical personnel had brought her back to normal.

He also said an emergency team from the Healthcare Ministry has later arrived to the prison after 2:00 AM [on December 7] for an urgent meeting to decide what to do, and eventually deciding to run the tests next morning.

In the statement issued later on Tuesday, the Healthcare Ministry reported that the prison authorities have requested on December 6 the team of doctors to show up because Tymoshenko had complained about health issues.

The ministry said it was Tymoshenko who had reported her collapsing and losing consciousness, a condition that could not be independently verified.

The tests on Saturday included MRI, CT computer tomography and blood run.

“The results of the investigation confirm earlier conclusion by a team of the Healthcare Ministry that Tymoshenko had no illnesses that require additional treatment,” the ministry reported on December 7. (tl/ez)