Yuliya Gurinenko, mother:
The son was supposed to visit his grandmother. Our grandmother lives nearby there. We immediately started to phone the grandma to tell him to stay there. There was no telephone connection. There was no way to call.
And then he opened the door. He was gasping and he was all white and frightened. ‘Kyrylo, what happened?’ I checked him all over hands-on. ‘Does something hurt?’ – ‘No, it doesn't hurt.’ – ‘Did something hit you?’ – ‘No, nothing.’ He lay down and began rolling on the floor. And then he felt bad. I could not understand anything.
He was getting worse and worse. Well, what to do? We could not call an ambulance as there was no telephone connection. It was good that the neighbours were in and they agreed to take me to the hospital. He could not stand and he could not walk. We could not understand what was the matter.
Then we arrived at the hospital and the doctor began to sound his lungs – some wheezing in the lungs. ‘Let me sound him from the back.’ She was going to do that and I didn't even understand what it was. A very small, a tiny wound. The doctor said: ‘This is the entrance hole.’ Only then did we realize that he was wounded.
We immediately took him to the district hospital by ambulance. Immediately to the operation. And another operation the next day. Then we stayed in intensive care for a week.
As he told us later, he was in shock. I taught him: if you hear a whistling sound somewhere, don't run, just fall, fall down, cover your head with your hands. Wherever you are, even in the mud, even in a puddle, but lie down. Well, then I asked him: ‘Kyrylo, why didn't you fall down?’ – ‘It did not whistle, but it hissed.’
He was just 30 meters away from turning around the corner into our street and then nothing like that would have happened.
It was winter and the weather was cold. Nothing was seen on his overcoat. Only on the T-shirt, when I looked against the light, I saw a small hole on it. It was literally a tiny fragment, as small as an edge of a nail.
It was a tiny fragment, but it caused quite a trouble. It went all the way into his lung. And maybe it was the doctors' mistake, maybe they overlooked it. They X-rayed only his thoracic region. That is, where the lungs are. And only then, after the operation, when the lung was sutured, then it became clear that the fragment had gone further. The next day, the abdominal cavity was opened… Almost all organs there were affected, except for the liver. The spleen was torn, as well as the stomach.
Kyrylo Gurinenko, 13 years old:
I passed by the fence and heard something hissing, some hissing sound. I was used to the fact that you could always hear it when shelling began. It quieted. Then about five seconds later it began to hiss again. I heard the first explosion and ran. I was hit and I thought it was a blast wave and ran on all the way to the house. It was very scary. I had not been so scared before and now I start feeling scared of it even more.
Lyudmyla Gurinenko, 59 years old (Kyrylo’s grandmother)
The child always came to visit me on Friday to stay for the night. And before that, he got sick, he got a little bit of flu. He called in after visiting the hospital: ‘Grandma, I'll play on the computer.’ He played for two hours. I said: ‘Kyrylo, that's enough, it's time to make some rest.’ He said: ‘I'll go home.’ I said: ‘Are you going for a walk somewhere?’ ‘No, I'm going home. The doctors prescribed another medicine to me and mom needs to buy it.’ I said: ‘Well, good, just don't go anywhere, go home right away.’
I sat at the computer and started playing. Then an explosion happened and the telephone connection was cut-off immediately. It seemed as if life stopped at that moment. You could not phone anywhere, could do absolutely nothing. Then, half an hour later, the neighbours came and said that a man and two women were killed. I got frightened. Half an hour later, the daughter-in-law came and told me that Kyrylo was wounded!
We went to the hospital immediately. It looked just like a small hole, but it caused so much trouble. His spleen was punctured, his stomach and his lung were damaged too. On Friday, he underwent a surgical operation immediately and his lung seemed to resume breathing. And in the morning, he had peritonitis. He was taken onto the operating table again. The operation lasted more than three hours. It was hard to go through all of that, surely.
God willing, everything will be fine. We are thankful to Rinat Akhmetov. They helped a lot with medications. If an ordinary person gets into such a trouble, it is simply unrealistic. One can just lie down and die and that's it, because people have no money, nothing. You are at a loose end. Great thanks and a low bow.
It is impossible to describe these feelings and this fear, indeed. They mostly shell at night. These explosions wake Kyrylo up. He often stays for the night with me and these explosions wake him up. I soothe him: ‘Kyrylo, it's just a thunderstorm. Imagine that this is a thunderstorm. Not a shellfire, but a thunderstorm.’ You should calm yourself down. You just need to set yourself focused on the fact that everything will be fine.
Whenever I walk past this fence, I cannot pass by with peace of mind there. Those who have not experienced this may not understand. I can understand Donetsk people. Poor kids. Poor elderly people. This is scary.
Yuliya Gurinenko:
Rehabilitation is very important. We cannot afford to go somewhere for such a long period of time in order to have some rest from this situation. The Rinat Akhmetov Foundation does a very important job. Indeed, in our days it is surprising that there are people who are not indifferent to other people’s troubles. We thank him very much that he does this, and that he does not leave our children in trouble.
