REPORT. In Kiev hospitals, patients have been sheltered “in the cellars, since the first day of the war”

The hall of the hospital is empty, only the sound of the hurried footsteps of the doctors is heard. You have to go to the first, then to the second basement to see the patients. Some sort of medicalized cellars, in which children with heart disease have been placed because the security forces, military or volunteers, are mobilizing to prepare for a Russian assault on Kiev.

In the hospitals of the Ukrainian capital, it is time for mobilization but also for the protection of patients already hospitalized.

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Five children are in a room, they barely watch the cartoon broadcast on TV. The youngest is 3 years old. They are under the supervision of a doctor, Georgian, who has already experienced a Russian invasion in his country in 2008: “Children should not suffer from military aggression. He should be at home or at school studying and doing homework and nothing else. I would have imagined that such aggression could happen.”

Angela is the oldest child patient. She is 15 years old and has already had three heart operations. For the first of these operations, she was three days old. It had to be installed in this cellar to be followed as best as possible. “We’ve been here since the first day of the warsays his mother Loda. It’s a safe place and I feel safe. Before, my daughter was hospitalized on the 5th floor and it was scary because you could hear the bombardments, the warning sirens, all these noises so loud.

“On the 5th floor, it was scary with my daughter whereas in the cellars we are safe. It is comforting because she is not yet stable. She must remain under surveillance.”

Loda, mother of Angela

at franceinfo

Doctor Glib Yemetz has not left the hospital since the first day of the war. Mobilized 24 hours a day, like all the staff in this hospital, he specializes in cardiac surgery, but is preparing to do war medicine. “We are waiting but we hope that it never happens to have soldiers injured in combatsays the surgeon. We have two surgical teams and everything. So if there is a battle within 10 km, we will treat them here.”

Usually, there are five to six cardiac operations a day in this hospital. They have all been suspended, deprogrammed. The block is now mobilized for war wounded.