Doctors have received medical furniture to organise workspace in the operating theatre.
Ukrainian doctors have repeatedly proved their heroism during the full-scale war. Since the first days of hostilities, they have been rescuing soldiers and civilians, sparing no effort. Sometimes operations of varying difficulty follow each other like an endless marathon. At a military hospital in Dnipro, dozens of Ukrainian defenders undergo surgery every day.
Recently, the Eastern Region Military Medical Clinical Centre in Dnipro has received assistance from Metinvest and the Rinat Akhmetov Foundation to equip operating theatres. At the request of the doctors, the steelmakers have donated medical cabinets and screens, stands for boxes, and a steam vacuum cleaner to maintain clean and sterile environment in the operating theatres.
"We have a constant inflow of patients, providing treatment for 40-60 people a day. We also perform a lot of operations. Typically, it is never less than 15 operations in one day. The government meets all the needs for medicines and surgical instruments. However, there is other necessary equipment that also affects the quality of our work, as the organisation of the workplace also affects the time required to perform an operation. We have received this equipment we needed from Metinvest and the Rinat Akhmetov Foundation, for which we are very grateful," said Yevhen HERASYMENKO, Chief of Surgery of the Eastern region military medical centre.
Operations at Azovstal and Russian captivity
Yevhen Herasymenko is a medical service lieutenant colonel of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Honoured Doctor of Ukraine. He was one of those heroic surgeons who volunteered to go to Mariupol, to Azovstal, where he performed about 300 surgical operations. After surviving Russian captivity, he is back in action and continues to treat wounded soldiers at the military hospital in Dnipro.
"I knew that Mariupol was besieged. But how could I do otherwise if I knew that our lads, heroes, needed my help there? So, of course, I accepted the command's offer to lead the surgical team," the surgeon says.
On 31 March 2022, at two o'clock in the morning, he left for Mariupol. The helicopters, fully stocked with everything necessary for the military, flew in complete darkness, at a super-low altitude.
Inside a bunker where a field hospital was set up, Yevhen Herasymenko performed many different surgeries. They were complicated, overlapping, and sometimes involved limb amputations. During his time at the hospital, he and his team of doctors provided surgical care to more than a thousand wounded, including about 400 seriously wounded.
Then Yevhen, along with our military, was taken prisoner - to a prison colony in Olenivka. Even there, in terrible conditions, he continued to help the wounded. Yevhen Gerasymenko spent four months in Olenivka and witnessed a terrorist attack that killed dozens of Ukrainian soldiers. Last year, on the 20th of September, Yevhen was one of those rescued from captivity. And now he is again saving the lives of soldiers.
– Back then, our team of doctors saved many lives – at Azovstal, in captivity, the soldiers could always count on us. After my captivity, I was treated and rehabilitated, and immediately returned to the hospital. Because I have to continue doing what I do best – saving Ukrainian defenders, – Yevhen Gerasymenko added.
