After a reveler spat in a policewoman’s face on New Year’s Day 2016, she contracted tuberculosis and died seven months later. 35-year-old Arina Koltsova was arresting a man when he grew angry and spat into her face. She did not know he was carrying tuberculosis at the time. But soon enough she got sick.
Although she wasn’t feeling well, she tried to ignore it. Then the sickness got worse. One day, she collapsed at work. Her fellow officers rushed her to the hospital where she was diagnosed with tuberculosis. She started treatment immediately, but by then it was already too late…

“She became ill after New Year’s Day,” Her on-duty partner, Officer Mikhail Kindrakevich, told the Daily Mail. “She had arrested this guy and he spat in her face. Some time later she collapsed. She had received treatment. She underwent chemotherapy, she was fed food through an IV drip and she had lost a lot of weight”

On July 25, 2016, Koltsova died from complications associated with tuberculosis. Two days later she was buried in Kiev.

“This is an irreplaceable loss for the whole of Kiev police, fond memories of Arina will remain in our hearts forever,” Koltsova’s police department wrote on its social media page.

“Arina wanted to change something for our country,” wrote one of her friends. “Joining the police was a conscious choice, she wanted to change things for better.”

If caught early, tuberculosis can be treated. The National Institute of Health says that it takes about six to 12 months of antibiotics to treat tuberculosis. Rare cases are drug resistant and are hard to treat.

It is unclear if Koltsova’s case was resistant or simply caught too late for treatment to be effective.

After her demise, locals came out in droves to share tributes for the “irreplaceable” woman who was very popular with the local community. She was well known in the Ukrainian capital because of her good looks and her hard-law mentality.