Oleh Holubchenko’s team was performing surgery on five-month-old Taras when an explosive wave tossed doctors across the room.
Glass fragments hit Holubchenko’s back and his colleague Ihor Kolodka’s face. The child lay on the table, surrounded by broken equipment and five adults covered in blood.
Holubchenko recalls yelling, “Is everyone alive?”
After the ventilator broke down, anesthesiologist Yaroslav Ivanov grabbed a manual resuscitator to keep the baby breathing. Worried that the ceiling might collapse, some team members ran with Taras to the basement.
The dramatic moments follow a missile attack on the Okhmatdyt Children’s Hospital in central Kiev on Monday, an assault that shocked Ukrainians and drew strong condemnation from Kiev and its Western allies.
The United Nations said on Tuesday it was “highly likely” the hospital was hit directly by a Russian missile during a series of air strikes on Ukrainian cities that have killed at least 44 people. The Kremlin has said without providing evidence that the hospital was hit by Ukrainian anti-missile fire, not Russian, leaving large parts of it in rubble.
Two adults were killed and dozens were injured in Okhmatdit. Many patients, relatives and staff fled to the basement in time to escape the explosion.
“For me, Okhmatdyt was the safest place for children and adults. On that day, I realised there were no safe places left anywhere,” Ivanov, 39, told Reuters by telephone on Tuesday while he was recovering from a brain injury and cuts.
When they reached the basement, Ivanov and his colleagues found a room that was free of smoke and away from the cries of the wounded.
There they revived the child and handed him over to a team of doctors to continue the surgery in another hospital.
straight back to work
While Holubchenko and Ivanov were caring for Taras, Kolodka removed the glass fragments from his face and then ran outside to see how he could help. He saw that the toxicology department had been ransacked.
“Since I was no longer bleeding, I went outside to help the wounded and deal with the aftermath of the missile attack,” Kolodka said.
“At the time, we didn’t think about whether it was easy or hard – we were just doing our job and trying to help.”
After spending a day in the dust and heat helping rescue workers and soldiers dig through rubble, he returned home to find there was no electricity. Power outages are now common across the country as Russia targets the energy system.
Kolodka woke up at 5 a.m. to shower and then go to work. Holubchenko also returned to the hospital on Tuesday.
“I had to leave because there was a meeting with colleagues to see what was happening in the department and check all the equipment,” Holubchenko said. “I … contacted colleagues from another hospital to ask about the child’s condition.”
It was reported that Taras is fine after the surgery.
The team have been overwhelmed by the outpouring of support and gratitude from patients and the wider community whilst battling exhaustion.
Repair work at the hospital began within hours of the explosion, with hundreds of volunteers joining in to remove broken glass, debris and damaged equipment.
“It’s great to see how united our people are,” Kolodka said.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
