Ukrainian surgeons rebuild lives amid war and loss

DW (English)

As Russia's war in Ukraine drags on, both sides suffer heavy losses. DW met a surgeon couple volunteering to treat wounded Ukrainian soldiers. After an attack, they even had to operate on their own family.

Transcript

00:00Trauma patients, consultations, operations, helping Ukrainian soldiers get back on their feet.

00:07This has been life for Oksana and Stanislav for four years now.

00:11Stanislav works with large bone injuries.

00:15This man is missing a piece of bone, so we operated on him.

00:19We rebuilt the bone here and put in a device.

00:22And now we are lowering the bone, millimeter by millimeter every day,

00:26until it connects with the native bone.

00:28As long as we turn it millimeter by millimeter, new bone will grow in this place.

00:33Resources are scarce.

00:34What the doctors can't get from the state, they seek from private foundations, including international ones.

00:40Sometimes they also manage to operate at the private clinic where they work,

00:44providing free consultations to wounded soldiers.

00:49Traditionally, 85% of the wounded return to service after their injuries.

00:54We rehabilitate them well and to a high standard.

00:57In other words, by keeping personnel combat ready, we are strengthening our country.

01:04And this actually takes up the vast majority of our time.

01:08And the rest of the time, we work as civilian doctors to earn money.

01:12When Russia's full-scale invasion began in February 2022, the couple managed to leave Bucha for Kyiv with their children.

01:24The following month, Oksana's parents tried to leave occupied Bucha.

01:28However, their car was shot at by Russian soldiers.

01:31Oksana's mother died on the spot and her father was wounded.

01:36Volunteers helped him out from a shed where he was hiding.

01:38They told him where to go.

01:41And he went through the gardens because there were cars driving and shooting on the roads.

01:46He climbed, then fell.

01:48And after two or three houses, there was a paramedic and an ambulance driver there.

01:53And when he left, we just froze.

01:55I sat there just staring at the phone and 40 minutes later, he called, I'm out.

01:59He walked through the checkpoints, and there were situations where he could have died, but luckily he made it.

02:08In Kyiv, Oksana operated on her father herself.

02:13His right arm was shot through and his head was injured.

02:17And then his life depended on me, on you, for a very long time.

02:22In honor of her mother, Oksana founded a charitable initiative and later a foundation that helps displaced persons and military personnel.

02:31The couple says they don't plan to stop as long as there's a need for their help.

02:36So, let's go.

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