Almost 800 people have been rescued since the beginning of the war: how paramedics work in the Donetsk region
Today is the second anniversary of the creation of the police paramedic unit in Donetsk region. The first paramedic groups were formed on March 7, 2022. Then this unit consisted of employees of the training center who had skills in tactical medicine. Subsequently, they were joined by police officers from various units - investigators, district police officers, forensics, etc.
Currently, 10 paramedic crews work in Donetsk region. Since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, they have made more than 2,000 combat sorties. Nearly 800 people were rescued, including 8 children. The smallest survivor is 6 months.
“We are always the first at the scene of the shelling, because if we do not provide assistance within 2-3 minutes in case of critical bleeding, a person will die,” says the head of paramedics Oleksandr Savenko.
According to him, on January 6, Russia struck S-300 missiles on Pokrovsky district. Then three groups of paramedics went to the places of “arrivals”. There they found out that gas escapes from the broken pipe under pressure. One spark - and everyone would soar into the air. Paramedics warned people and began assisting the injured as a result of the attack.
“We rushed to a man with a bloodied face, started bandaging, and he says, 'This is my home, there's a wife and two children there. ' There was a ravine on the site of the house. I will never forget his eyes - he understood that his family is no longer there,” recalls Alexander Savenko.
From the victim, the police learned that there may be people in another dwelling under the rubble. Together with rescuers, they began to disassemble the wreckage and heard a voice. A few hours later, a man was found alive. He is the only survivor of the whole family. Then 11 people died, including 5 children.
One of the paramedics of Donetsk region Irina Shushura recalls the night on February 14 in Selydove. Then a Russian rocket hit a five-story building. Together with colleagues, the police rescued the victims. Among them were a 16-year-old girl with leg and head injuries and a boy who was thrown from the 5th to the 1st floor by the blast wave.
“He broke his spine. We helped him and pulled him off - and in time: another five minutes and he would have been crushed by the stove. Together with the other victims, the man was taken to the Selydovsk hospital, and an hour later the Russians dropped three missiles on the medical institution. There were more than 100 people there”, - says Irina Shushura.
On February 14, the main enemy strikes came on the gynecological and pediatric ward, as well as the boiler room. Paramedics helped a woman who was dripping with blood, a young mother who was lying on the stairs and begging to find her six-month-old baby. The baby was saved by a doctor.
Within four hours, paramedics, along with emergency medical workers and doctors, evacuated patients to other area hospitals.
But often, rescuing civilians, paramedics themselves receive injuries. Since the beginning of the full-scale invasion of the Russians on the territory of Ukraine, four paramedics suffered injuries. Despite this, police officers continue to perform their tasks and even share their experience of rescuing citizens during combat operations with colleagues, cadets and civilians.
National Police of Ukraine
