"We carry the heart, we carry the heart"

Russia is not tired of killing Ukrainian children. At the same time, Ukrainian surgeons under shelling conduct unique operations to children

On July 8, 2024, at ten in the morning, the Russian army began the next attack from the air in Ukraine, mainly in Kyiv. I released about forty missiles of different types: “daggers”, “calibers”, “Iskanders”, “zircons”, X-101, and so on. It seemed that the Russians seemed to be enough for the Russians at night: not all military goals were struck.

At 10:42, one of the missiles hit the toxicology of the National Children's Specialized Hospital of Okhmatdet (protection of motherhood and childhood), destroying it completely - in this two -story building they carried out dialysis. An explosive wave knocked out windows and doors in surgery. Resuscitation, operating unit, radiology department and the only oncgetological laboratory in the country were badly affected .

The staff and parents managed to move most patients to the shelter before the attack: they carried it in their hands, taken out on the catals. Many small patients have nurses and mothers, supporting, directly with connected droppers. In total, there were 627 boys and girls in Okhmatdet on that day, from newborns to teenagers.

Fifty were wounded right in wards, fragments of scattering glass from the windows: the blow overtook at the time of evacuation. Information agencies reported that there were no dead among children.

But the baby, who at the time of the attack was in intensive care, in critical condition (he was transported to one of the hospitals in Kyiv), died by the evening of the same day. The heart could not stand it. How many more children were, who, instead of a chance for life, were injured and traumatic shock, in addition to their serious illnesses and died later, I could not find out. Adults then killed two: a doctor and a visitor to the hospital. Personnel - as rescuers, doctors and just Kyivians help to disassemble the rubble under the howl of the next siren of air anxiety, like bald, after chemotherapy of children, water in the shade, against the background of the ruins - around the whole world. Can a normal human heart be able to contemplate such paintings and not to burst?

It took exactly a year. Okhmatdet was restored. The war continued with the growing degree of atrocities.

On the night of July 9 to 10, 2025, Kyiv shook from explosions: there was a massive air attack, ballistics and shock drones. They were launched a record number. People were killed, including a young police officer - an employee of the subway. Fires flashed on the streets, there were several arrivals in high -rise buildings.

That night, the director of the Heart Institute, the famous cardiac surgeon Boris Todurov was driving. He, along with his assistants, was driving ... a living heart. A short video - how it happened - published on her Facebook journalist Violetta Kirtok.

The plot is like from a blockbuster. Cars burn on the side of the road, the wreckage of the downed drone fell on them, the rattles of Schaed, who dives at a supernight height, and the surgeon repeats in a smooth voice, like a mantra: “We carry the heart, we’re driving the heart ...” There is also a video of the moment of arrival in the clinic, the journalist added. The rattle - you can’t confuse it with anything - it grows directly above the heads of the doctors, who are waiting for colleagues and a small patient in the operating room. Explosion. Alive. You can work.

After some time, Violetta Kirtok, who writes a lot on medical topics, told a unique story in more detail in the Censor Blog. Todurov was in a hurry to save a 12-year-old girl, and to share from the media was not very in a hurry. Here is a direct speech of the cardiac surgeon:

- For many years we have been friends with the children's hospital Okhmatdet. But there has never been a situation when the parents of the deceased child would give permission to the fence of organs for transplants. On July 8, this happened for the first time in this clinic. A few days earlier, a four -year -old girl was brought to the hospital, an accident occurred with her: she received a severe head injury. Unfortunately, the baby could not save. Her mother is a health worker. She is familiar with me. And when she was informed of the death of the brain, she agreed that her child be taken for transplants: kidneys, liver, but to take her heart. Therefore, our team went to the children's hospital late on July 8, ”Todurov said.

And continued:

- During the removal of the heart, we heard explosions, understood what was happening around. But did we have a choice? Could we wait? The girl expected the heart, which we had already done one operation of despair on the morning of July 8: we sewed a mechanical heart, because she could not live with her own. For the first time, we at the institute installed such a device for a child. By the way, they bought it for Zhenya, our six -year -old patient. But on the eve of Easter a donor heart appeared for him: a woman died during childbirth. She was quite miniature, because we decided to transplant the child, although this is extremely rare. Children, as a rule, transplant hearts taken from children. But Zhenya had no time left, he had to be saved. A month after the operation, the boy was in a coma, ”continued Boris Todurov. - And his parents are in an emotional coma. Zhenya won. He began to open his eyes, breathe on his own, talk. Now he has been in an ordinary ward for a month, although postoperative neuropathy is still felt. So the mechanical heart remained unused. And came in handy only now ...

Todurov noticed that one cannot live with a mechanical heart, it only makes it possible to wait for the donor organ:

- And it so happened that after the super -complex operation we did at the institute, my colleagues from Okhmatdet called me and reported the possibility of transplantation. A blood group of the deceased baby coincided with a blood group of our heavy patient. She was a priority in the waiting sheet. The kidneys and liver were transplanted to patients awaiting such transplantation in Okhmatdet itself. Both doctors and parents of the children who are undergoing treatment there, recall the night from July 9 to 10 as one of the most terrible. Shahda circled over the children's hospital, the explosions sounded very close, ”the surgeon concluded.

Over the two military years - in air alarm during operations, not having the opportunity to deliver donor organs by helicopters - fourteen successful heart transplants for children have made in Ukraine. Since the beginning of a large war ( the data of the Ukrainian Ministry of Health), Russia has damaged or destroyed in the country 2354 objects consisting of 769 medical institutions: hospitals, outpatients, maternity hospitals, and clinics.