Working under fire, operating on the wounded while being shelled, remaining true to their professional duty notwithstanding threat to life and limb and despite... 11.04.2022, Sputnik International
Working under fire, operating on the wounded while being shelled, remaining true to their professional duty notwithstanding threat to life and limb and despite a lack of supplies and medicines, saving strangers’ lives – this is the reality under which doctors of the Donbass have lived. Their patients are the direct and indirect victims of genocide.
Donbass’s civilian hospitals have been the targets of armed attacks and shelling since the early days of the conflict.
Above: Ward of the city hospital in Gorlovka, Donetsk People’s Republic (DRP). The windows are covered by pillows, the city is being shelled by the Ukrainian army.
Civilian doctors and medics became military ones on the spot with practical, real-world experience. They worked in conflict zones, in urban areas turned to rubble, in places which had been mined.
Above: A medical worker helps a wounded militia fighter during a battle on the outskirts of Slavyansk, DPR. The man was brought to hospital by local residents.
The frontline often came up right up to hospitals, but staff would continue their work to the end.
Above: Village of Semyonovka in DPR. A doctor at a hospital facing artillery fire from the Ukrainian Army looks through a window toward Ukrainian positions.
During periods of particularly heavy artillery attacks, doctors, nurses and orderlies would carry patients into hospitals’ basements. From there, the necessary medical procedures would continue to be performed.
Above: Medical workers in the hospital in the village of Semyonovka, DPR take shelter in the building’s basement during an artillery strike.
Not all doctors and nurses survived the war. At least one doctor was killed in shelling. Others died before their time from the strain. Others still were wounded or mutilated. Others left.
All of them are heroes – human beings who fulfilled the ancient motto of the medical profession ‘Aliis inserviendo ipse consumor.’ – ‘In service to others, I myself am consumed.’
Above: Doctor Vitaliy Kuchaev inspects the consequences of the shelling of the hospital in the village of Staromikhailovka, DPR.
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