Director of the Shalimov Institute of Traffic Engineering: Modern war is a political trauma
Kyiv • UNN
The war in Ukraine has led to complex polytrauma affecting many organs. Doctors face logistical challenges during transplants, but gain unique experience in military medicine.
Mine injuries typical of the war waged by Russia in Ukraine usually affect many organs and systems. Modern warfare is a polytrauma, says Oleksandr Usenko, Director General of the Shalimov National Research Center of Surgery and Transplantation. The challenges faced by Ukrainian doctors because of the war are described in the Podrobnitsy story, UNN reports.
"Modern warfare is a polytrauma. Mine injuries affect many organs and systems," noted Oleksandr Usenko.
This is exactly the kind of injury Dmytro suffered. From the first days of the great war, he commanded an air defense platoon in the hottest areas of the front. This year, in March, a shell dropped from a drone hit his car.
"The blast wave tore the roof of the car and tore out a muscle. I was climbing out, clinging, tearing... I got caught by a bulletproof vest. I was trying to do something, but my arm did not work, so I tore off the vest in a frenzy... He tore the straps and got off me. I flew about 50 meters through the landing on adrenaline," said Dmytro Zhyrov, an air defense platoon commander.
Dmytro underwent several surgeries on his arm. But during his treatment, doctors discovered that the blast wave had seriously damaged his heart. Now the fighter is being examined at the Shalimov National Research Center of Transplantation and Surgery. To get on the waiting list for a donor heart. More and more Ukrainians are ready to become organ donors. In case of clinical death, they agree to give their hearts to serve another person. For example, to a soldier who did not spare his own. But it is extremely difficult to perform transplants during the war.
"Logistics has become more complicated. If earlier it was possible to use aviation more widely, now there is a curfew, it is not always convenient for the team to travel. The main problem at this stage is to deliver the donor organ in time," Artur Gabrilian, Head of the Department at the Shalimov National Research Center for Surgery and Transplantation.
Today's heroic struggle is forcing doctors to undertake the most difficult operations that European doctors have never faced before. And to hold the medical front steady.
"There is no such experience in military medicine as Ukraine's in the world. We do not spend huge amounts of money sending our patients abroad. We are able to do it all ourselves. Thanks to the state, thanks to the government, our institution is provided with the most modern equipment. We still have a lot of work to do to bring people back to a normal, fulfilling life," says Usenko.
Read more in the story.
