How Okhmatdyt works in war conditions: about doctors, patients and hope
Okhmatdyt Hospital in Kyiv has not stopped helping anyone in need for a day. They conducted operations, rescued the wounded and worked on the medical front 24/7. We talk a little about how the hospital worked during the war, which patients got there and why, despite all the horrors that are happening around, the main emotion is hope .
How the hospital works during the war
that their hospitals were not accustomed to working around the clock, but during the war they provided assistance to absolutely everyone: both children and adults. For example, the youngest patient injured in the war was a one-month-old girl named Victoria, and the oldest patient was 83-year-old grandfather Ivan Ivanovich.
"At the beginning of the war, all planned operations were canceled, but urgent operations remained, those that could not be canceled or postponed. This is, for example, if a child is hospitalized with a stroke or appendicitis, etc. All doctors of all specializations remained in the hospital. We provided a variety of assistance during the war, and for 60 days almost all the staff lived in the hospital itself. It was not only doctors, but also cooks, the press service, the economic department, lawyers, because this is a huge machine, where not only doctors work, "says Dmytrashko.
She added that in the first days we tried to evacuate the largest number of patients to the west of the country or abroad to protect them from the military threat. It was also decided to move to a new corps, which was not yet fully operational at the beginning of the war, it was only partially operational.
"On February 25, bullets flew into the hospital, then there were explosions. We had broken windows, damaged doors, even the ceiling in one building. We decided that almost all of us were moving to a new building, for the first day we organized a reception department with three operating rooms and three resuscitation beds in a sheltered room. During the war, new operating rooms were opened in the new building, "said Lydia Dmytrashko.
Now the hospital is operating normally. Planned operations and hospitalizations have already been resumed, and the children are already being admitted to the hospital for planned operations. And during the war, when children came with a common cough - no one sent them home, they were given advice, help.
"And so we had two streams - the surgical stream, when the wounded came, and the pediatric stream, when mothers with children came, who coughed there, or fell and killed, we received everyone. Doctors take everything very courageously, they say they can’t give up and be upset, because then they won’t be able to help, "Dmytrashko said.
She added that at the beginning of the war, with each alarm, they went down with all the patients. It could be six times a day, and patients are different: bedridden, oxygen-dependent, children with orphan diseases, cancer patients. In the first days, everything was killed in the shelters, there were a lot of people there. And they should not be there, they should be in special separate boxes, wards, so we evacuated them. Now everything is calm, so patients are in the wards.
"Now the hospital is provided with everything we need and we are very helped by volunteers, they cover a large number of our needs, " Dmytrashko concluded.
Stories of patients
13-year-old Vova was hospitalized on February 26. He and his family were trying to leave Kyiv when their car came under fire. The boy’s father and his 6-year-old brother died on the spot. Other relatives were brought to Okhmatdyt for treatment.
"When he was brought in - it was terrible shots, there was simply no half of the face, everything was torn. He was in intensive care for some time, many surgeries were performed. After all, now he is eating, talking. For two weeks my mother could not find her husband’s body, she went to the morgue every day. His mother was afraid to stay in Kyiv, so they went to Poland. "- says Dmytrashko.
Vova was diagnosed with a gunshot wound to the right half of his face, a gunshot-fragment open fracture of the lower jaw, and a fragment fracture of the right cheekbone-orbital complex. Okhmatdyt’s specialists performed a number of complex operations on the teenager. Vova will need a long rehabilitation to fully recover.
During the evacuation of the family from Irpen - the Russian military simply started shooting at their car. Yes, a resident of Irpen Natalia says that when the war began, she only managed to pick up her parents from the hospital in Bucha - they did not have time to complete treatment for covid.
"The family waited a few days and decided it was time to evacuate the city. The relatives drove to the Russian checkpoint in two cars. Here began the worst: Russian soldiers began shooting at civilians with mortars. The mine exploded 10 meters from the car where Natalia was. The woman and her 7-year-old daughter Varya received severe shrapnel wounds and severely injured their legs, ”the hospital said.
Then the mother and the girl were taken to the Irpin hospital, where they stayed for three days. But the shelling around did not subside for a moment. Therefore, it was decided to evacuate the wounded by ambulance to Kyiv. There was only one way to escape - through the destroyed bridge. There, soldiers of the Armed Forces carried Natalia in a wheelchair, and soldier Serhiy was carrying Varya in his arms. The girl still remembers her savior - "Uncle Seryozha". The guy promised to buy her a bike. Now Varya is in Okhmatdyt and must recover.
Little Varya is always very sad. If we ask a girl what she wants, we will hear the voice of the whole of Ukraine: "I really want to go home and stop the war."
In Kyiv, a four-year-old boy was returning home with his father when the enemy shelling began. A Russian shell hit the yard, the son and father received shrapnel wounds. With a severe mine wound in the lumbar region, the child was taken to Okhmatdyt.
The hospital says that the boy was given all the necessary diagnostics and surgery. Okhmatdyt specialists treated the torn wound and excised the non-viable tissues. The child was diagnosed with severe kidney disease. Fortunately, the spinal cord and other internal organs were not affected. Currently, the patient’s life is not in danger, but this injury is very dangerous. The child is waiting for a long treatment.
In a Kyiv family, mother Olga covered the baby with her body, protecting her daughter from injuries. The woman herself received numerous shrapnel wounds. Dmytro’s father says that he and his wife heard shelling all night, which became closer and closer with each passing year. From the very morning when the wife was feeding their one-month-old daughter, an enemy shell flew near the five-story building where the family lives.
"They are from Kyiv, it was morning, the mother was feeding the child, the father was also in the room and at that time there was a shelling near their house, all the windows were broken. The broken glass flew at the mother and child, and the mother simply covered the child with herself. Now everything is fine with the family, they went on, ”says Dmytrashko.
A family from Chernihiv also found themselves in Okhmatdyt. They are upthe latter did not want to leave his hometown, but their house came under fire from the first day of the full-scale Russian invasion. The family stayed in Chernihiv for a month, for more than two weeks there was no gas, electricity, water or heating in the apartment.
"We studied the sound of various shells, the house shook from the shelling, we spent the night either in the basement or in the corridor, because the worst started at night," says mother Tatiana.
The family remembers that it was dark in the basement, and there were heavy shootings everywhere. But she did not dare to leave the city before, because Chernihiv is now protected by the family’s eldest son - he serves in the Armed Forces. The family dared to flee when all major bridges in the city were destroyed. There was only one road left. The Russians did not stop firing all day. As soon as the family crossed the bridge and got out of the car for a while, another enemy attack began . The first shell hit a nearby car, a few meters from the family.
"Fortunately, the car exploded, there were no people inside. The whole family was injured by shrapnel. Little Dima was badly injured in the leg, his mother was hit by shrapnel. Both his father, older sister and her boyfriend were injured. Then the Russians fired more than 20 shells, "the hospital said.
The child’s leg was tied with a tourniquet and he was rushed to the nearest local hospital. On the way, little Dima said that he was not in pain at all, although his mother could not look at his injured leg. The family received first aid at a small local hospital. Then they sent him to Okhmatdyt. Now the family continues treatment in the Department of Orthopedics and Traumatology.
Author Anastasia Ishchenko
More news
How the hospital works during the war
that their hospitals were not accustomed to working around the clock, but during the war they provided assistance to absolutely everyone: both children and adults. For example, the youngest patient injured in the war was a one-month-old girl named Victoria, and the oldest patient was 83-year-old grandfather Ivan Ivanovich.
"At the beginning of the war, all planned operations were canceled, but urgent operations remained, those that could not be canceled or postponed. This is, for example, if a child is hospitalized with a stroke or appendicitis, etc. All doctors of all specializations remained in the hospital. We provided a variety of assistance during the war, and for 60 days almost all the staff lived in the hospital itself. It was not only doctors, but also cooks, the press service, the economic department, lawyers, because this is a huge machine, where not only doctors work, "says Dmytrashko.
She added that in the first days we tried to evacuate the largest number of patients to the west of the country or abroad to protect them from the military threat. It was also decided to move to a new corps, which was not yet fully operational at the beginning of the war, it was only partially operational.
"On February 25, bullets flew into the hospital, then there were explosions. We had broken windows, damaged doors, even the ceiling in one building. We decided that almost all of us were moving to a new building, for the first day we organized a reception department with three operating rooms and three resuscitation beds in a sheltered room. During the war, new operating rooms were opened in the new building, "said Lydia Dmytrashko.
Now the hospital is operating normally. Planned operations and hospitalizations have already been resumed, and the children are already being admitted to the hospital for planned operations. And during the war, when children came with a common cough - no one sent them home, they were given advice, help.
"And so we had two streams - the surgical stream, when the wounded came, and the pediatric stream, when mothers with children came, who coughed there, or fell and killed, we received everyone. Doctors take everything very courageously, they say they can’t give up and be upset, because then they won’t be able to help, "Dmytrashko said.
She added that at the beginning of the war, with each alarm, they went down with all the patients. It could be six times a day, and patients are different: bedridden, oxygen-dependent, children with orphan diseases, cancer patients. In the first days, everything was killed in the shelters, there were a lot of people there. And they should not be there, they should be in special separate boxes, wards, so we evacuated them. Now everything is calm, so patients are in the wards.
"Now the hospital is provided with everything we need and we are very helped by volunteers, they cover a large number of our needs, " Dmytrashko concluded.
Stories of patients
13-year-old Vova was hospitalized on February 26. He and his family were trying to leave Kyiv when their car came under fire. The boy’s father and his 6-year-old brother died on the spot. Other relatives were brought to Okhmatdyt for treatment.
"When he was brought in - it was terrible shots, there was simply no half of the face, everything was torn. He was in intensive care for some time, many surgeries were performed. After all, now he is eating, talking. For two weeks my mother could not find her husband’s body, she went to the morgue every day. His mother was afraid to stay in Kyiv, so they went to Poland. "- says Dmytrashko.
Vova was diagnosed with a gunshot wound to the right half of his face, a gunshot-fragment open fracture of the lower jaw, and a fragment fracture of the right cheekbone-orbital complex. Okhmatdyt’s specialists performed a number of complex operations on the teenager. Vova will need a long rehabilitation to fully recover.
During the evacuation of the family from Irpen - the Russian military simply started shooting at their car. Yes, a resident of Irpen Natalia says that when the war began, she only managed to pick up her parents from the hospital in Bucha - they did not have time to complete treatment for covid."The family waited a few days and decided it was time to evacuate the city. The relatives drove to the Russian checkpoint in two cars. Here began the worst: Russian soldiers began shooting at civilians with mortars. The mine exploded 10 meters from the car where Natalia was. The woman and her 7-year-old daughter Varya received severe shrapnel wounds and severely injured their legs, ”the hospital said.
Then the mother and the girl were taken to the Irpin hospital, where they stayed for three days. But the shelling around did not subside for a moment. Therefore, it was decided to evacuate the wounded by ambulance to Kyiv. There was only one way to escape - through the destroyed bridge. There, soldiers of the Armed Forces carried Natalia in a wheelchair, and soldier Serhiy was carrying Varya in his arms. The girl still remembers her savior - "Uncle Seryozha". The guy promised to buy her a bike. Now Varya is in Okhmatdyt and must recover.
Little Varya is always very sad. If we ask a girl what she wants, we will hear the voice of the whole of Ukraine: "I really want to go home and stop the war."
In Kyiv, a four-year-old boy was returning home with his father when the enemy shelling began. A Russian shell hit the yard, the son and father received shrapnel wounds. With a severe mine wound in the lumbar region, the child was taken to Okhmatdyt. The hospital says that the boy was given all the necessary diagnostics and surgery. Okhmatdyt specialists treated the torn wound and excised the non-viable tissues. The child was diagnosed with severe kidney disease. Fortunately, the spinal cord and other internal organs were not affected. Currently, the patient’s life is not in danger, but this injury is very dangerous. The child is waiting for a long treatment.
In a Kyiv family, mother Olga covered the baby with her body, protecting her daughter from injuries. The woman herself received numerous shrapnel wounds. Dmytro’s father says that he and his wife heard shelling all night, which became closer and closer with each passing year. From the very morning when the wife was feeding their one-month-old daughter, an enemy shell flew near the five-story building where the family lives. "They are from Kyiv, it was morning, the mother was feeding the child, the father was also in the room and at that time there was a shelling near their house, all the windows were broken. The broken glass flew at the mother and child, and the mother simply covered the child with herself. Now everything is fine with the family, they went on, ”says Dmytrashko.
A family from Chernihiv also found themselves in Okhmatdyt. They are upthe latter did not want to leave his hometown, but their house came under fire from the first day of the full-scale Russian invasion. The family stayed in Chernihiv for a month, for more than two weeks there was no gas, electricity, water or heating in the apartment. "We studied the sound of various shells, the house shook from the shelling, we spent the night either in the basement or in the corridor, because the worst started at night," says mother Tatiana.
The family remembers that it was dark in the basement, and there were heavy shootings everywhere. But she did not dare to leave the city before, because Chernihiv is now protected by the family’s eldest son - he serves in the Armed Forces. The family dared to flee when all major bridges in the city were destroyed. There was only one road left. The Russians did not stop firing all day. As soon as the family crossed the bridge and got out of the car for a while, another enemy attack began . The first shell hit a nearby car, a few meters from the family.
"Fortunately, the car exploded, there were no people inside. The whole family was injured by shrapnel. Little Dima was badly injured in the leg, his mother was hit by shrapnel. Both his father, older sister and her boyfriend were injured. Then the Russians fired more than 20 shells, "the hospital said.
The child’s leg was tied with a tourniquet and he was rushed to the nearest local hospital. On the way, little Dima said that he was not in pain at all, although his mother could not look at his injured leg. The family received first aid at a small local hospital. Then they sent him to Okhmatdyt. Now the family continues treatment in the Department of Orthopedics and Traumatology.
Author Anastasia Ishchenko
More news