There is another emergency in the areas of‘Ukraine East, already battered by the conflict that began with the February 24 invasion Russia. And it affects hospitals that lack doctors, nurses, medicines and equipment to treat the wounded and rescue those who arrive in mortal danger. Many have given up Donbass already at the eruption of the first rockets, others later left, unable to withstand an untenable situation. Yaroslav Bohak, a heart surgeon who got a call the night of the invasion, didn’t do that. As the New York Times reports, he was at his home, safe in western Ukraine, when a colleague called him with a desperate plea: help is needed in Kramatorsk, the remaining surgeons are being forced to amputate limbs instead of saving She. “He called me, told me and said he couldn’t cut off the arms of little boys like that anymore.”
Direct Ukraine, Moscow: ready to resume negotiations. Kyiv: “We will not grant territories to the Russians”
UNDER THE BOMBS
And so decided Dr. Bohak continues to operate between the bombs and rockets today, whoever crosses the hospital’s threshold, be they civilians, military or enemies. For example, when a Russian soldier urgently transported and “treated with humanity” asked for help while security guards guarded his room to avoid retaliation. The nearest hospital capable of treating the most desperate cases is in Dnipro, 280 kilometers away, and for most of the injured, getting there is too dangerous a proposition. “That’s why my arrival was so important,” he explained. Since he came to the station as a volunteer, amputations have been reduced to almost zero. Of the ten doctors, only two remain and the six nurses work non-stop 24-hour shifts. Almost all on a voluntary basis because, according to the Head Nurse, the people are “afraid” and only “the Stoics” remain here. And the same is happening in the other cities that are unwillingly on the front line. In Avdiivka, the station’s only surgeon spent months in the emergency room, only going to the supermarket for a few quick runs amid the bombings. A third of the workforce will remain in Sloviansk.
DELIVERIES
It’s not just staff shortages: another surgeon, Pavlo Baiul, has asked the American Society of Plastic Surgeons, of which he is a member, to send medical supplies. “Even if a lot is sent to us, he said – not everything reaches its destination, much more is needed.” “Nobody prepares you for war,” added Svitlana Druzenko, who coordinates the evacuation of the wounded from the combat zones. Even more so in such a densely populated area that it was not used to dealing with so many injured people. Despite warnings from the West, and particularly the White House, of Russia’s war intentions, many in Ukraine refused to believe that an invasion could actually happen. And when the attack began, hospitals were not ready to face such an emergency, with a staggering increase in patients and especially war injuries. As another volunteer surgeon at the Zaporizhzhia military hospital, Maksim Kozhemyaka, testified, the hospitals were suddenly “overflowing with 30 or 40 patients a day” and did not have “enough supplies to treat gunshot wounds or other even more serious wounds.” “We didn’t think that could happen,” he concluded.
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