RussiA: Surgeons Operate Open-heartedly In A Burning Hospital

heroic. In Blagoveshchensk, a town in the far south-eastern part of Russia, near the border with China, eight surgeons who were performing open-heart surgery in a specialized clinic made the decision to finish what they had started and to save their patient when the health establishment was devastated by a fire. The disaster broke out on Friday morning. The fire quickly spread upstairs and smoke crept into all the hallways. The police evacuated 128 people, except the surgical team who operated on the ground floor.

“We couldn’t interrupt him. […] we had to save this person and we did everything at the highest level. The operation was completely completed and without difficulties, ”said Valentin Filatov, the doctor in charge, on Rossiya 24 television.

“There was no panic,” said another caregiver, Antonina Smolina. According to the emergency services, an electric cable was laid by them to the operating room while the electricity was cut in the building and fans were installed to evacuate the smoke.

Doctors soon to be decorated for their courage

“Control of the fire was complicated by the fact that […] the fire was active over the entire surface, ie 1,600 square meters, ”explained Konstantin Rybalko, deputy director of the region’s Emergency Situations Department, in a video released by the authorities.

After the procedure was completed and after making sure nothing threatened the patient’s life, caregivers evacuated him and left the burning building with him, to transfer him to another hospital, according to local authorities. The fire, due to an electrical problem, according to preliminary findings, was brought under control and there were no casualties. Local authorities promised to decorate the doctors who continued the operation and the firefighters who extinguished the blaze.

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