It seemed that we were already in hell when, during the operation, the electricity went out.

I remember well one of the first patients. His leg was severely wounded by a mortar shell, his leg was almost gone. When it was brought, we were shocked, because before the war we had never seen anything like it. The limb was amputated, the man was saved. And then they started bringing more and more new ones. Someone was pierced by shrapnel in the chest while fishing, someone was blown up by a mine while going to fetch water.

In the first days, we were so shocked by what we saw that we simply worked "automatically": we stabilized the victims, restored blood circulation, performed surgical treatment, and sent them for full treatment.

Each of us did our job, although the war forced me to perform more complicated operations as a traumatologist. Every time it seemed that nothing would surprise us anymore, more and more new patients with more and more complicated injuries were brought.

At first we didn't know it. Hydropneumothorax, accumulation of fluid and air in the chest cavity was seen on the pictures. But the condition worsened, and it was necessary to operate him. The fact that he survived, that the projectile did not hit his heart, is a real miracle. But this is a miracle that happened in particular thanks to the doctors, because a lot depended on them. We had a very professional team and managed to save almost everyone who came to us.

There were broken windows, and direct hits into the building, and even into the bomb shelter. In the operating room, we covered the windows with sandbags and iron shields almost from the first days. And for good reason. Now these shields are all crumpled. Communications also suffered from these shellings. There were constant problems with electricity, water, and gas. And how is it possible  to operate without electricity?

All. Equipment, lighting, oxygen dissapeared. When such happens, a second equals infinity. But this is only a second. The next moment, the anesthesiologist, under the flashlight of a smartphone, removed the ventilator from the patient and put on the Ambu bag. All this happened instantly. Then the generator was turned on, we took out the fragment, sewed up the lungs, everything ended well. But I will never forget that second of darkness.