WEBVTT - Made with VTT Creator 00:05.339 --> 00:21.825 position:50% align:middle On February 24, when the shelling started and we heard the first explosions, so to speak, I was at home with my family. My daughter is also a doctor, 00:21.825 --> 00:36.453 position:50% align:middle and she works in the anesthesiology department. We immediately got ready and went to the hospital, and my family stayed at home. The first days... 00:36.453 --> 00:58.177 position:50% align:middle On the first day, when we were in the hospital, we did not have any seriously wounded patients. There were mainly minor injuries, so from February 24 to 28, 00:58.177 --> 01:14.783 position:50% align:middle we were still able to send our doctors to the hospital, which was in Mariupol, to help treat the seriously wounded. Starting on February 28, 01:14.783 --> 01:38.209 position:50% align:middle we were no longer sending our staff to the hospital. Why? Because numerous injured residents of Mariupol began to arrive. Many new patients were admitted, and we had to... 01:38.209 --> 01:55.040 position:50% align:middle At first, we had a sufficient stock of medicines and dressings. The staff of the department and the hospital staff, in general, 01:55.040 --> 02:18.434 position:50% align:middle would come to work according to their duty schedule on the first days. Then, starting on March 1, many employees could not commute, so they stayed in the hospital. 02:18.434 --> 02:35.610 position:50% align:middle During this period, starting on February 26, my whole family, including myself, my wife (my wife is also a doctor), my two daughters, and my two grandchildren, 02:35.610 --> 03:02.394 position:50% align:middle moved to the hospital and stayed there until March 21. The situation was dire. During the first days, until March 1, there was electricity and cell phone reception. 03:02.394 --> 03:20.432 position:50% align:middle Why? Because the anesthesiology and intensive care department and the surgery ward could not operate without electricity. Then, a cell phone signal disappeared, 03:20.432 --> 03:42.863 position:50% align:middle and the power was cut off. The hospital had a generator, but we used it only when many wounded people were delivered to the hospital. The situation in the hospital was, 03:42.863 --> 04:04.830 position:50% align:middle so to speak, terrible. A lot of people came to the hospital from nearby houses and neighborhoods to hide in the hospital basement. We had to treat the injured and, 04:04.830 --> 04:25.439 position:50% align:middle at the same time, make sure that those people stayed warm and got some food. Our hospital management, in particular our medical director, Andrii Stepanovych Servetnik, 04:25.439 --> 04:39.086 position:50% align:middle made all the arrangements to feed the people who stayed in the hospital. We’ll speak figuratively: he, so to speak, “robbed” our catering department, 04:39.086 --> 04:50.996 position:50% align:middle which was located on the territory of the hospital and, frankly speaking, nearby pharmacies; we also took medicines from there. Every morning, 04:50.996 --> 05:07.520 position:50% align:middle we had to make an order for food and medicine, not only for the hospital staff and patients but also for those who stayed in our basement. 05:07.520 --> 05:23.756 position:50% align:middle We all remember and know what the temperature was in March. It was freezing. When the power was cut off, the heating disappeared as well. It was very cold in the hospital, 05:23.756 --> 05:45.492 position:50% align:middle and when the mass artillery shelling from the sea and air raids started, the situation became dire. All the buildings and other structures located near the hospital were damaged. 05:45.492 --> 06:12.476 position:50% align:middle The outpatient clinic and the neurology department building were damaged as well, and the surgical, therapeutic, and children’s infectious disease departments continued to operate. 06:12.476 --> 06:34.239 position:50% align:middle There was only one doctor left in the therapeutic department – Andrii Ivanovych Hnatiuk – and two doctors – Yuliia Volodymyrivna Malakhova 06:34.239 --> 06:54.631 position:50% align:middle and Anatolii Borysovych Kazantsev – continued to work in the children’s department. In the surgical department, let’s put it this way, by March 7 or 8, we were left with four anesthesiologists, 06:54.631 --> 07:19.170 position:50% align:middle three surgeons, and two doctors and two interns in the trauma department. The young guys who worked in the trauma department had five to seven years of experience, so, basically, 07:19.170 --> 07:55.376 position:50% align:middle they had to learn and do things that maybe they would never have to do in their lives. Two surgeons practically never left the operating rooms. The temperature in the operating rooms was four degrees above zero, 07:55.376 --> 08:17.680 position:50% align:middle and we had to do something to keep the patients warm and somehow be in shape ourselves. Meals. We had food in general... we cooked it ourselves. We cooked mainly when the generator was switched on. 08:17.680 --> 08:37.667 position:50% align:middle We could cook only in the surgical department building because the generator supplied electricity only to that building, so people from other buildings came to our building and also tried to cook food. 08:37.667 --> 09:02.552 position:50% align:middle After a few days or a week, we got a problem with water. The water became so scarce that we had to tap into all the fire hydrants located near the hospital... We exhausted them very soon, 09:02.552 --> 09:19.939 position:50% align:middle as apart from the hospital, people from nearby houses came to get water. When, we discovered that there was a well at Tenisna Street. 09:19.939 --> 09:39.018 position:50% align:middle I would like to express my deepest gratitude to these people who allowed us, as well as almost everyone else who lived on the Left Bank, to get water from their well. 09:39.018 --> 09:58.065 position:50% align:middle Those people supplied water around the clock, and thanks to that, we managed... Why? We had to keep the patients, the staff, the department itself, and the operating unit clean. 09:58.065 --> 10:24.146 position:50% align:middle We had to go there for water under shelling, let’s say, risking our lives. Unfortunately, Andrii Ivanovych Hnatiuk died during one of the trips for water. This is how the situation developed. 10:24.146 --> 10:42.651 position:50% align:middle In addition to the water that we brought, we collected snow. It was cold, so it snowed, and we had to collect it. The employees collected snow, and in general, that water was also used. 10:42.651 --> 10:58.715 position:50% align:middle I would like to express my gratitude to our doctors and nurses. Those are the people who stayed. Some nurses, at least in my department, lived not so far from the hospital, 10:58.715 --> 11:10.181 position:50% align:middle and I always had the same thought, “Well, she’ll go home and won’t come again because it’s very risky.” Nevertheless, those people returned every day, 11:10.857 --> 11:35.264 position:50% align:middle as they generally should. The situation had been deteriorating every day, and we started running out of medicines and medical supplies, let’s put it this way. 11:35.264 --> 12:04.846 position:50% align:middle A lot of sick people came in. It so happened that the Left Bank was isolated, shall we say. Unfortunately, during this period that we were there, we saw neither the leadership of the district nor the leadership of the city. 12:04.846 --> 12:29.262 position:50% align:middle I remember that a few days before March 8, the chief doctor of the hospital came to our department and said that there was information that the hospital was gathering people, gathering chief doctors, 12:29.262 --> 12:48.757 position:50% align:middle and the hospital was helping other hospitals that were still functioning with some things. The chief doctor went there, and when he came back, he said that everyone there thought that the 4th hospital no longer existed. 12:48.757 --> 13:02.340 position:50% align:middle Those were the conditions, in which we had to work. In order for the generator to work, we had to get it ourselves... A couple of times, the military helped us. They brought fuel oil, 13:02.340 --> 13:15.434 position:50% align:middle and then we had to go and look for fuel oil ourselves; some of the relatives of the patients brought fuel oil. Those were the conditions, in which we had to work. 13:15.434 --> 13:42.566 position:50% align:middle Considering that the situation was critical, we realized that after March 8, we would not be able to get out of the hospital. The wounded kept coming, and the shelling was getting more and more frequent. 13:42.566 --> 14:00.931 position:50% align:middle As I told you, all the surrounding buildings were destroyed. We were on the fourth floor. Our anesthesiology and intensive care department was on the fourth floor, and we had a panoramic view of all that horror. 14:00.931 --> 14:22.335 position:50% align:middle I don’t even know what these explosions from the seaside, terrible shelling, and air raids could be compared with. When an airplane flew over this four-story building, it started swinging like a pendulum. 14:22.335 --> 14:51.150 position:50% align:middle We – all the staff of the department and the hospital staff... It turned out that, strangely enough, the windows on the fourth floor were the last to be damaged, but before that, the windows on the first floor, 14:51.150 --> 15:15.395 position:50% align:middle the second floor, and the third floor were blown away. The windows in the surgery and trauma departments were damaged, so the temperature in the wards where the patients were treated was freezing. 15:15.395 --> 15:35.684 position:50% align:middle We tried to avoid keeping the patients in the wards. But why? Because, let’s say, it was safer there, and all the staff stayed with the patients in the hallways. In those terrible conditions, 15:35.684 --> 15:58.124 position:50% align:middle when all that was happening, in addition to the medical staff, we still had other employees in the hospital. There was another danger, which was posed by an oxygen substation. 15:58.124 --> 16:12.548 position:50% align:middle One of the substations had a barrel of liquefied gas – liquefied oxygen, and the second one had numerous oxygen cylinders. Oxygen specialists were working there, 16:12.548 --> 16:30.331 position:50% align:middle and they had to change the oxygen under the shelling so that we could work somehow. One day, this oxygen station with liquid oxygen was pierced by shrapnel. Thank God, 16:30.331 --> 16:45.240 position:50% align:middle it was only a piece of shrapnel, so it did not explode. That liquid oxygen just leaked out. Then the oxygen pipe was broken, and we gave the command to cut off the oxygen. 16:45.240 --> 17:08.351 position:50% align:middle We had to work without oxygen. Even now, when I am in Germany, we tell the doctors of our specialty about the conditions in which we worked and how it all happened. They can’t understand. 17:08.351 --> 17:22.478 position:50% align:middle They cannot understand and cannot imagine how it was possible to work in such conditions and save people. In the beginning, we would send the sick... the dead to the morgue, 17:22.478 --> 17:37.021 position:50% align:middle and then it became... First of all, the morgue was already overcrowded, and it became dangerous for the staff who were transferring corpses to the morgue. Why? 17:37.021 --> 17:54.039 position:50% align:middle Because the territory of the hospital was shelled constantly, and corpses were piled up near the emergency room. Corpses in bags were piled up near the wall. 17:54.039 --> 18:13.620 position:50% align:middle There were many people who died, but there were also many people who were saved. A lot of people were saved. The hardest moment for us was when people started coming in large numbers. 18:13.620 --> 18:29.354 position:50% align:middle A lot of people were coming to the hospital. Once the shelling ended, the wounded would start arriving half an hour later. In the beginning, the ambulance service continued to operate, 18:29.354 --> 18:47.648 position:50% align:middle but a few days later, it stopped. We are deeply grateful to two ambulance staff members who came to our emergency room and helped us there. They assisted in the emergency room. 18:47.648 --> 19:10.658 position:50% align:middle People came, were delivered by their cars, or just walked in, and it never ended. The situation was terrible. People came during the day and at night. I will tell you that we managed to save a lot of people. 19:10.658 --> 19:42.745 position:50% align:middle As it happens in extreme situations... It would seem that in peacetime, what we did and, let’s say, in those aseptic conditions, so to speak, the human body was adjusting so that these wounds healed. 19:42.745 --> 19:57.121 position:50% align:middle However, in normal, peaceful conditions, we would have many complications, but here, thank God, we managed to save these patients. As for patients, the worst part, as always, was the children. 19:57.121 --> 20:15.719 position:50% align:middle When the children were delivered to us, all the staff of the department were deeply upset when they saw these children; everyone had tears in their eyes, and it was terrible. 20:15.719 --> 20:34.850 position:50% align:middle The wounds were mostly head and limb wounds, as well as penetrating wounds. There was an interesting thing about that. A patient would be delivered with a tiny entry wound, 20:34.850 --> 20:58.088 position:50% align:middle but when we started operating on the patient, we would see that everything was torn apart on the inside. At first sight, the wound would seem not to be serious, but it turned out to be the opposite, and it was very creepy. 20:58.088 --> 21:17.393 position:50% align:middle There were mostly amputations and abdominal wounds. And the children... the children were mostly delivered with head injuries because pieces of shrapnel, as it turned out, were flying at that level. 21:17.393 --> 21:39.509 position:50% align:middle The most disturbing part was when we had to determine who we could save and who we couldn’t save. It happened. There were situations when we already knew that a person was going to die, and it was eerie. 21:39.509 --> 21:53.794 position:50% align:middle We had a stockpile of narcotics in the department because, during COVID, there was not such a need for expenditures, and we had sufficient financing, and that’s what saved us. 21:53.794 --> 22:17.559 position:50% align:middle In terms of drugs required for anesthesia and pain management, we had sufficient supplies, and we helped these people as much as we could. The chief physician Zhyhyl remained in the hospital until March 8, 22:17.559 --> 22:51.965 position:50% align:middle and then he couldn’t come because he was at home; he couldn’t get here because of the shelling. Andrii Stepanovych Servetnyk was the most senior in terms of age, and we all had the staff in general. 22:51.965 --> 23:18.271 position:50% align:middle We had brief meetings every day, and we discussed issues every day. In those 20 or 30 days, we treated about 300 patients. We tried to leave the city three times, but it didn’t work. 23:18.271 --> 23:47.908 position:50% align:middle The bridge over the Illich Plant was blocked, and we couldn’t pass through the embankment because the road was blocked and mined, so we were surrounded. It was horrible to watch. 23:47.908 --> 24:17.680 position:50% align:middle There was such a situation. You could see our servicemen on Pashkovskoho Street when Russian tanks were already moving along Peremohy Avenue. This situation was very unpleasant and shocking, 24:17.680 --> 24:40.918 position:50% align:middle so we tried to get out, but we could not. We only managed to get out when we had already run out of almost all medicines and food. We had transferred all the seriously wounded to the wards, 24:40.918 --> 25:02.922 position:50% align:middle and on March 21, we heard a rumor that it was possible to leave the Left Bank, let’s say, practically through the Azovstal plant. We had six cars that were not damaged. 25:02.922 --> 25:26.878 position:50% align:middle So, we gathered our employees who agreed to leave, and got into cars. It turned out that we could pass through the area near the gatehouses and drive over the rails. 25:26.878 --> 25:39.972 position:50% align:middle Once we got to the embankment, we could only drive in the opposite direction on the road, but we finally reached the Post Bridge. We were desperate when we saw that the Post Bridge was also destroyed. 25:39.972 --> 26:04.328 position:50% align:middle Then, we saw, so to speak, a road, or rather a path, amongst all the rubble, leading across the old bridge. When we crossed the old bridge, another horror and humiliation began – we had to pass these roadblocks 26:04.328 --> 26:37.922 position:50% align:middle and checkpoints. We got to Bilosarayskaya Spit and spent the night there. The next day, we set off for Zaporizhzhia. We reached Tokmak. I am very grateful to those people who let us stay in their houses in Tokmak, 26:37.922 --> 26:52.514 position:50% align:middle and those people, those residents of Tokmak, who provided us with tremendous help, although they were already in occupation at that moment. I am deeply grateful to all of them. 26:52.514 --> 27:16.687 position:50% align:middle Then, the next day, we left through Vasylivka. As soon as we left through Vasylivka, the Russians started shelling us with mortars, but we managed to break out for Zaporizhzhia. 27:16.687 --> 27:50.479 position:50% align:middle In general, we arrived in Zaporizhzhia and parted ways there, so to speak. This is what we had to go through. As I have already said, our doctors, Andrii Ivanovych Hnatiuk and Anatolii Borysovych Kazantsev, 27:50.479 --> 28:05.456 position:50% align:middle died. Anatolii Borysovych Kazantsev was the head of the children’s ward. He would come to our ward every morning to warm up... He had six other children in the ward, 28:05.456 --> 28:24.877 position:50% align:middle and he came to us every morning to make tea and give these children a drink. It was March 20 when he died. He was walking to our building when the shelling started, and, unfortunately, 28:24.877 --> 29:05.086 position:50% align:middle he died in my arms. Doctor Vlasiuk also died. We left in six or seven cars, and there were seven or eight people in each car. It means that there were about 40 of us, so we took with us about 40 people. 29:05.086 --> 29:28.141 position:50% align:middle We took almost all those who wanted to leave. Some people decided to stay. Dr. Shepotinnik and his family stayed, and Andrii Ivanovych Hnatiuk also stayed. All the doctors, staff, 29:28.141 --> 29:46.085 position:50% align:middle and nurses from the emergency room – some of them stayed while others found a way to leave. Some people who worked at the hospital lived in the Vynohradne area. They went there, 29:46.085 --> 30:06.619 position:50% align:middle and we never saw them again. I cannot tell you how many patients remained in the hospital. At least, we transferred all heavy patients who were in the intensive care unit to the surgery ward. 30:06.619 --> 30:20.119 position:50% align:middle There was another situation. On March 21, in the morning, when we were about to leave, the wounded were delivered to the hospital. We had to come back and help them. Thank God, 30:20.119 --> 30:41.077 position:50% align:middle neither of them had wounds requiring surgical intervention or abdominal surgeries. We dressed their wounds and then left. I cannot imagine how many people remained in the hospital at that time, 30:41.077 --> 31:07.212 position:50% align:middle but I think, the total number did not exceed 50. Some of the nurses stayed with the patients who remained in the surgical and trauma wards, and there were doctors who... You see, the situation there was such that, 31:07.212 --> 31:19.848 position:50% align:middle let’s say, there were no medicines that we could use to treat patients. The only thing we could do was change the bandages, but we were unable to provide any other treatment. 31:19.848 --> 31:43.857 position:50% align:middle In general, we stayed there until the end, so to speak, and did our best. Those people who stayed there – some stayed on their initiative while others did not have any other choice – but, put simply, 31:43.857 --> 32:04.212 position:50% align:middle a doctor has to provide help. The management of these medical facilities is a totally different story. I strongly disapprove of these things, but if a doctor stayed there, they had to help people. 32:04.212 --> 32:28.586 position:50% align:middle What other choice do they have? Getting paid there is a totally different thing. If they get a salary there, those aspects should probably be reconsidered. I think that it should not be happening that way. They have formal employment contracts there; 32:28.586 --> 32:42.803 position:50% align:middle they get their salaries, and pay taxes there. I managed to get my whole family out. I have two grandchildren. Two grandchildren were with me. My granddaughter is 12 years old. It all happened... 32:42.803 --> 32:58.331 position:50% align:middle My grandson is 8 years old, and it all happened in front of their eyes. They were in the hospital with us. My granddaughter helped cook food, and she also helped the wounded. 32:58.331 --> 33:18.529 position:50% align:middle She helped us take care of the wounded children. Those children experienced all those horrors, and they saw blood, tears, and other terrible things. When a plane was flying with the lights turned on at night, 33:18.529 --> 33:33.374 position:50% align:middle it felt like it was going to heat the building, and the whole building was shaking like a pendulum. I am still wondering how that building survived. We left on March 21, 33:33.374 --> 33:54.306 position:50% align:middle and on March 22, a shell hit the surgery block. And that road, and how we traveled... When we had to pass all those checkpoints, in particular, those that were manned by DPR militants rather than the Russians, 33:54.306 --> 34:11.605 position:50% align:middle it was a nerve-wracking experience. It is impossible to imagine how they humiliated people there. They made people strip. There was a young doctor, or an intern, with us, 34:11.605 --> 34:31.880 position:50% align:middle and he was traveling in my daughter’s car. When we left, none of us could pick up our things from home. When we got to Tokmak, they saw a phonendoscope and found out that we were doctors. 34:31.880 --> 34:45.536 position:50% align:middle They started telling us that we should not leave because we were doctors. I said that the hospital had been destroyed, and that all the patients were gone. As I said, there were young guys traveling with us. 34:45.536 --> 35:09.381 position:50% align:middle They had graduated from the medical schools four or five years ago, and they were treated terribly. They stripped them down to their underwear, and we also had a doctor with his wife, 35:09.381 --> 35:38.469 position:50% align:middle a young couple, and she was... she was Syrian or from another Arab country, and she had an Arab name. 35:38.469 --> 35:54.500 position:50% align:middle There were Chechens at the checkpoint, and they almost made her strip. I believe... I hope that we will return, and this hope keeps me going.