Extract from ABC News
Vika Zadnipryana's left hand was amputated after a Russian missile struck her family's apartment building. (ABC News: Andriy Dubchak)
Vika Zadnipryana and Nastia Shadura are like many teenage girls — Vika enjoys bead weaving, drawing, and roller-skating, while Nastia loves listening to bands and painting.
But when Russia's war in Ukraine came into their homes, the joys of a normal adolescence were ripped away in an instant.
For Vika, 14, it was a suspected drone attack on her family's apartment block in the southern city of Kherson at 3am on one September day.
"We were asleep when there was a hit on us. It most probably targeted the first floor," Vika tells the ABC.
"Shrapnel ripped my arms … two days later, doctors amputated my left hand."
Nastia's home, also in Kherson, was struck in July.
"I was in my backyard when a missile hit our home. I was just three meters away," Nastia, 16, says.
"My grandmother called for the neighbours to call for the ambulance.
"They took me to the intensive care of Kherson's children's hospital [where] they amputated my left leg."
Vika Zadnipryana and Nastia Shadura share a smile while recovering in hospital. (ABC News: Andriy Dubchak)
Nastia Shadura's left leg was amputated after she sustained significant injuries in a blast. (ABC News: Andriy Dubchak)
Both Vika and Nastia were medically evacuated to Ukraine's capital, Kyiv, and are roommates at Okhmatdyt Hospital, the country's largest children's hospital.
It, too, has been a casualty of the war, with its toxicology building hit by a Russian missile on July 8.
The main hospital building with its colourful façade was also heavily damaged.
Its windows were blown in, and high-tech pieces of medical equipment were damaged beyond repair.
Two people were killed, 32 were injured, and hundreds of patients, parents, and medical staff had to flee to bomb shelters underground.
Orthopaedic paediatrician Valery Bovkun was there when the hospital was struck.
"On the day of the explosion there was chaos, the patients were terrified," recalls Dr Bovkun, who is the head of the microsurgery department.
"It's good that most of them were in the bomb shelter but there were surgeries going on in other buildings and some of the doctors were injured.
"Our patients are children, so lots of children were crying all over the department."
Emergency services work at the site of Okhmatdyt children's hospital hit by Russian missiles, in Kyiv, Ukraine, Monday, July 8, 2024. Russian missiles have killed several people and struck a children's hospital in the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, authorities say. (AP: Evgeniy Maloletka)
Staff at the Okhmatdyt Hospital survey the damage after Russia's attack. (Reuters: Thomas Peter)
Enormous toll on medical staff
After a swift clean-up operation, the hospital began treating the most in-need patients again four days after the explosion.
Now, almost five months on, the hospital is crowded as more patients squeeze into less space.
On the day of the ABC's interview with Dr Bovkun, he dialled into our video call while walking through the wards trying to find somewhere quiet to speak.
His previous office no longer exists, and his new one is too busy — seven doctors are sharing three desks.
It has been a stressful and exhausting time for medical staff.
"In the moment when you provide help you don't think about yourself, it's later when I come home that I feel it," Dr Bovkun says.
"It's extremely important for their entire world to see these wounded children and their troubles, caused by the Russian aggression, its attacks, missile strikes, because they are not firing only at the military targets but also at civilian targets and at hospitals, too.
"When beautiful children's bodies are damaged as result of the injuries, when they lose their limbs and their lives are ruined, that is extremely important to know.
"When I begin to think about this, to analyse it, I have tears filling up my eyes."
Dr Valery Bovkun's working conditions at Kyiv's Okhmatdyt Hospital have changed significantly since the blasts. (ABC News: Andriy Dubchak)
Okhmatdyt Hospital is back in action, but parts of it have been destroyed. (ABC News: Andriy Dubchak)
Meanwhile, Vika and Nastia are trying to support one another.
Vika wants to travel the world one day, while Nastia dreams of becoming an artist.
"We go out for walks together, tell each other stories, talk about our future," Vika says.
"Mostly we have a good, fun time together. We help each other as much as we can."
Physically and mentally, it has been an incredibly tough time for both girls though.
Vika tells the ABC she is finding it hard to accept one hand has been amputated, while Nastia has already had 16 surgeries on her leg, with more to come.
Vika Zadnipryana and Nastia Shadura have built a friendship while recovering in hospital. (ABC News: Andriy Dubchak)
Vika Zadnipryana and Nastia Shadura share a joke in their room at the Okhmatdyt Hospital. (ABC News: Andriy Dubchak)
One of Okhmatdyt Hospital's child psychologists, Tetiana Pidkova, has been spending time with the girls every day.
"I have been working with 15 [wounded] children for three years, being in constant contact with them, not only until the day of release from the hospital, but then they also come back to us for rehabilitation," Ms Pidkova says.
She explains Vika and Nastia have been feeling heartbroken and depressed, "comparing their lives before the tragedy to now when they live with trauma", but she is trying to help them acknowledge what happened and move forward.
"We went through the suffering, we cried, and we laughed, we talked about the future, and we remembered positive moments in life," Ms Pidkova says.
"I dream about peace … I want all my patients to be healthy and happy. I tell them, 'OK, you don't have a leg, you don't have an arm, [but] we are all different … we are all great people, and you are special'."
Child psychologist Tetiana Pidkova is trying to help the girls change their mental perspective on their injuries. (ABC News: Andriy Dubchak)
Nastia Shadura speaks with staff at the Okhmatdyt Hospital in Kyiv. (ABC News: Andriy Dubchak)
Childhoods devastated across Ukraine
Naysan Sahba, from UNICEF, says the war in Ukraine, which has now been going for almost three years, is devastating childhoods all over the country.
"We are averaging about 16 child deaths or injuries every week, about two a day, which is unspeakable, which is unacceptable, from any perspective," Mr Sahba tells the ABC.
UNICEF is the United Nations primary agency for helping children.
"If children are not dying, they're being injured at rates that are unacceptable," Mr Sahba says.
"If they're not being injured, they're being displaced, if they're not being displaced, every aspect that we consider normal in a child's life is being severely disrupted, like the chance to go to school.
"It's an impossible situation, one that is being met with incredible resilience but with an untold trauma underneath, particularly for the youngest members of these families."
Ms Pidkova, her colleagues, and groups of volunteers have been trying to bring some elements of normality and even fun into Okhmatdyt Hospital
The Russian missile strikes destroyed parts of Ukraine's largest children's hospital. (Reuters: Oleksandr Ratushniak)
Rescuers, volunteers and medical workers clean up the rubble and search for victims after the Russian strike on Okhmadyt Hospital. (AP: Efrem Lukatsky)
They have arranged for donated computers to be handed out, animals to be brought in from the Kyiv Zoo, art therapy classes, gardening therapy sessions, and for Ukrainian celebrities, Olympians, and soldiers to visit.
"It's important for children to know that they are not forgotten, that people pay attention, that their cases are important," Ms Pidkova says.
The most recent visitors were five wounded soldiers who took Vika and Nastia across the road to a local café where they drank coffee, shared stories and sang Ukrainian songs.
"That was just great, because Nastia spent two hours [outside] in the wheelchair. When she's here in the hospital she spends all her time in the ward, but yesterday all she thought of was her conversations with the boys," Ms Pidkova says.
Vika and Nastia know there are more tough days ahead. Months and years, too.
They tell the ABC they want the world to know that children like them are suffering, and that Ukraine needs more aid.
"It's important to understand that lots of people are in trouble, that it's necessary to help. Give weapons, so we can kick the Russians out," Nastia says.
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy visits Okhmatdyt Children's Hospital in July. (Supplied: Ukrainian Presidential Press Service via Reuters)
No comments:
Post a Comment