It was emotionally challenging to support the entire department's work day and night.

On February 26, my husband and I came to my shift together and stayed at the hospital. All the responsibilities fell on me in those first weeks because no one else could pick up the slack. At first, the hospital admitted people wounded because of explosions, then regular patients.

At night I would hear, "Lida, someone is sick there," and I would come running with a flashlight because of the dim-out. It was my duty, and I did what I was supposed to do.

The heavily injured were taken to surgery and then transferred to us. We gave injections, administered drips and sedatives, so they could sleep, and offered counselling with a psychologist for mental recovery.

There were times when 18 patients would be in the waiting room, and I was the only nurse on the job. I approached everyone, interviewed them, and measured their blood pressure. I moved around from the seventh to the second floor: tools were in one place, medicine in another, and the patients kept coming. And I needed to register everyone, assess them and write reports. Also, my duty was to support patients, encourage them, give them the strength to live on, and reassure those who were scared.

And when one day, colleagues wrote in Viber, "How are you holding up?" I couldn't take it anymore and started crying. It's good that my husband was nearby to comfort me. He helped me a lot these weeks. Otherwise, I don't know how I would bear it. I worked eighteen shifts in a row without leaving the hospital.

They started bringing in volunteers who took over some of my duties in three weeks. Other workers arrived when they escaped the occupation. Some of them came to the hospital from the occupied territories on foot through the swamps: wet, barefoot, without food, without anything.

And on March 8, our director presented all the women with yellow tulips. Our spirits lifted a little, and our morale improved. That's how we made it. Nothing heroic: we just did what we were supposed to do where we were supposed to be.