Doctors of the National Children's Specialized Hospital of the Ministry of Health of Ukraine “Okhmatdet” have been working around the clock since the beginning of the war and saving many wounded of all ages. Sometimes they end up with children whose parents have already been killed by the Russians, sometimes there are entire families affected by the actions of the invaders.
Each such story is terrible and poignant. We tell the stories of children affected by the war and talk about how the Okhmatdet hospital works in the conditions of war.
Note! The material contains photos that are strictly not recommended for viewing by minors, pregnant women and people with unstable mentality.
How “Okhmatdet” works in war conditions
Lydia Dmitrashko CNSL “Okhmatdet” communicator, said that the “Okhmatdet” hospital has always provided round-the-clock assistance to all children in need. Because they are used to working 24/7. But in times of war, they help absolutely everyone: both children and adults.
Our youngest patient, who was injured due to the war, is one-month-old girl Victoria, and the oldest patient is 83-year-old grandfather Ivan Ivanovich. At the beginning of the war, all planned operations were canceled, but urgent operations remained that cannot be canceled or postponed. This is, for example, if a child is admitted to the hospital with a stroke or appendicitis, etc. – clarified Dmitrashko.
She added that in the early days, the largest number of patients were evacuated to the West of the country or abroad in order to protect them from the military threat. They took out everyone they could. The hospital also has a lot of buildings and a new building, but before the start of the war it functioned partially.
We made such a decision that almost everyone is moving to a new building. During the first day, we organized an emergency department with three operating rooms, three resuscitation beds in a secure room. During the war, new operating theaters were opened in the new building,” Lydia said.
At the beginning of the war, at every alarm, the staff went downstairs with all the patients. It could be six times a day, and the patients are different: bedridden, oxygen, children with orphan diseases, cancer patients. In the early days, everything was full in the shelters, there were a lot of people there. And they should not be there, they should be in special boxes, wards, so we evacuated them.
“Now everything is calm, because the patients are in the wards. The doctors went down several times when everything was already shaking a lot. When the operation is in progress, no one will interrupt it because of anxiety. No one will leave the operating room until the operation is completed,” she explained.
Currently, the hospital is already operating as usual, scheduled operations have resumed. And during the war, when children came with an ordinary cough, no one sent them home, they provided advice and assistance.
We had two streams – a surgical stream, when the wounded arrived, and a pediatric stream, when mothers with children arrived, who coughed there or fell and hurt themselves – we accepted everyone. We accept children from all regions of Ukraine, the wounded were brought to us not only from Kyiv and the Kyiv region, but also from Nikolaev, Sumy, etc. – said Dmitrashko.
According to her, doctors are ready to defend the medical front and treat all those in need, for example, they had a man whose wife and two children were killed, a man's leg was torn off. This is hard to watch for everyone, but doctors are doing their best to benefit and save lives.
Which patients go to the hospital
Unknown #1
The first child who came to us was February 25th. I was very struck by this story. It was a boy brought to us without parents, he had a huge wound on his neck, he also had shrapnel and bullet wounds, there were several bullets in his body. He arrived and we didn't even know his name, but recorded him as “Unknown #1”. He was brought by the ambulance. The boy was pulled out of the car, his parents and sister were shot by the Russians, – said Lidia Dmitrashko.
The boy had a cardiac arrest, he was restarted, he lay in intensive care for another five days with terrible blood loss, all the functions of his body were supported with the help of devices. The child was found to have a shrapnel wound to the neck on the right side, multiple shrapnel damage to soft tissues, a lacerated head wound and brain contusion. An ambulance was called by soldiers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. As it turned out, the boy's name was Simon. After 5 days in intensive care, the boy died.
Boy Semyon/Photo courtesy of Channel 24:
Letters to heaven
We had six-year-old Milana, she lived in a house near the airport in Gostomel. A rocket flew into the room where she and her family were hiding, and her mother was torn to pieces in front of the girl. Milana had a foot injury. Milana drew letters to heaven for her mother, she wrote them and drew hearts on every page of the notebook, – said Lydia Dmitrashko.
Specialists of Okhmatdet performed several operations on Milan. The father is always with the daughter. He recently buried his wife, he left two children – Milana and her 9-year-old brother Kostya.
The girl's father says that that fateful morning was quiet until the rocket hit the neighbor's house. The family hid in one of the rooms of their house, but after 30 seconds the next rocket hit right in the room where all the people were. My aunt's foot was torn off, and her leg had to be amputated up to the knee. The rest received shrapnel wounds. But Milana's mother, Diana, was unlucky the most. She died in front of her husband and two children.
Milana also suffered – fragments damaged her lower limbs, the right foot received the most damage. Okhmatdet specialists have already performed several surgical interventions on the girl: they removed fragments and non-viable tissues, transplanted skin to the affected areas. Now the girl is in Okhmatdyt, continues treatment, psychologists are working with her, the hospital said.
Milana with her father/Photo courtesy of Channel 24 website:
Buried father in the yard
The large Nechiporenko family lived in Bucha. The youngest of three sons, Yura, recently turned 14 years old. On March 17, together with his father, he went to the center of the occupied city for humanitarian aid and medicines.
We had a fourteen-year-old boy who was in Bucha under occupation. They lived with their family for two weeks without water, gas and electricity. When the medicines and food ran out, he and his father went to the center of Bucha for humanitarian aid. They were stopped by a Russian military man and asked where they were going. They were on bicycles and with white armbands, they said they were going for groceries. A Russian soldier shot his father right in front of the boy's eyes: he shot him accurately in the head and heart. Then he started shooting at the child,” said Lydia Dmitrashko.
The boy himself also told the details of the terrible story.
“We were riding bicycles when a Russian military man came out from behind the house. We stopped , raised their hands, said that we had no weapons. But the soldier started shooting at my father. He fell. Then the military man started shooting at me, two bullets hit my arm. I fell to the ground. The soldier fired another shot at the hood, but the bullet did not hit head,” said 14-year-old Yuri.
The child lay on the ground for several minutes, and when the military man left, he ran to the nearest shelter, where he was given first aid. Then the guy got home, told the family that his father had been killed.
The family could not pick up the body for two days. When this was done, the victim's hand was no longer wearing the white bandage identifying civilians. It was removed by the Russian military. In addition, they stole a phone, wallet and even house keys. The family had to bury their father on their own in the courtyard of their house.
Yura, in whose eyes his father was killed/Photo provided by Channel 24 website:
