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From the first day of Russia’s full-scale aggression, the wounded have been transported to Lviv medical facilities from towns and villages where the fighting was taking place. Most often, they were brought from the east and the centre of Ukraine – in particular, Kyiv, Kharkiv, and Mariupol. To see how medicians in the rear are rescuing those from the front, Lviv Now talked to Hnat Herych, the head of the 1st Surgical Department of the First Medical Association of Lviv.
The hardest was in the first days of the full-scale war. For doctors, nurses and all staff, the day started earlier, ended later, and sometimes didn’t end at all.
«Earlier, we thought that the period when more than three or four people turn to us at once is a lot. But during this war, our hospital received more than 60 patients at one time! It happened exactly during an air strike near Lviv. We received and operated on all people, and this is the first such case in the history of the hospital. This was not the case even during the Sknyliv tragedy [July 27, 2002 air show disaster on the Sknyliv airfield near Lviv, as a result of which 77 people died],» – said the doctor, who performed seven surgeries that day, some of which lasted several hours.
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During the war, the hospital had to provide assistance to young boys and girls aged 18-20, with amputated arms and legs, and older, 50-60 years with multiple injuries. Hnat Herych even had to operate on a patient who had 18 parts of her body injured, starting from the face and finishing with the rectum and limbs. An 18-year-old boy was also treated in the department, after he survived the bombing, in which his parents were killed.
«It’s difficult to see patients with serious injuries and mutilated faces. Some people even need a face transplant, which, unfortunately, is not performed in Ukraine at the moment... «, the doctor explains.
We will remind that earlier, we told a story of a paramedic from the «Hospitallers» organization who helps Ukrainian fighters on the frontline. You can read about him in our article.
Olha Shveda, translated by Vitalii Holich
Follow us on and Instagram. Lviv Now is an English-language website for Lviv, Ukraine’s «tech-friendly cultural hub.» It is produced by Tvoe Misto («Your City») media-hub, which also hosts regular problem-solving public forums to benefit the city and its people.
