On 31st August, one of the MOAS bases in Ukraine was hit by Russian weapons. There were 19 medics and personnel in the building at the time, who immediately sought safety in the bomb shelter in the basement. Minor injuries were sustained from flying debris. Another eight members of staff were out conducting medical evacuations at the time. The impact of the blast was just three metres away from the base, smashing all the windows and setting a big fire to several rooms, including one that was full of expensive medical equipment and medicine, all of which had been destroyed.
MOAS paramedic Serhii Golda, 29, was the one most severely injured during the attack. He received a closed craniocerebral injury and recalls his experience in this interview.
Working on the front line, you must have been aware of its associated risks. How did you perceive them?
When I came to work at the MOAS, I understood that there were risks to my health and life. The closer to the front line, the higher the chance of shelling. But everywhere is dangerous in our country. You can also come under fire in civilian life.
Where were you during the shelling, did you take all possible safety measures?
During the shelling on August 31, I was resting in my room with my doctor. It was night; we had just returned from a call in the evening, so we were already asleep during the attack. We had a basement on location, where my colleagues and I made a shelter to hide. We equipped it with beds, a place to rest, a place to make coffee and something to eat, and first aid medicines were kept. From time to time, we were there. Once, there was an incident when we heard the sounds of Shaheds flying. Then everyone quickly got together and went down to our storage. Already in the basement, we heard explosions in the city. However, when the rockets arrived on August 31, there was no time to avoid the impact. The time between the first explosion, to which we reacted and started to get out of bed, and when we were hit was about 2 seconds. Everything happened very quickly, and hearing a rocket fly right at you is unreal.
What were your first thoughts and actions at the time of the hit?
A second before the rocket hit, I only had time to get out of bed and sit down; I didn’t even have time to get to my feet; just then, the explosion rang out. I was immediately stunned by the shock wave and felt the ceiling fall on my head. At that second, it seemed that a wall and a roof would crush me. When it stopped pouring, I tried to get up, but I failed right away because it was dark, something big was lying under my feet, and on top of me was a window frame, which I threw off. I did all this in complete darkness and closed my eyes because I could smell dust and smoke. When I realised that I could move, I intuitively turned to the exit and saw a light in the corridor, and I started to climb out there. It was challenging to do this because there were many fragments of the ceiling, window and other things on the floor. Behind me, I heard my doctor yelling at me to run. We stepped out into the hallway and started walking toward the stairs that led to our basement. All these events were as if in a fog because I was concussed and hit hard on the head. I could hardly hear anything; there was a loud tinnitus. I hardly remember how exactly I got down to the basement. I began to recover already when I was sitting on a chair in the storage room, and our girls began to treat my wounds and wipe off the blood. I couldn’t hear what was being said right next to me because I had an intense tinnitus. They covered me with a blanket and began to take me out of the basement and into the street. Our car was parked nearby, and the doctor of my crew and I were taken to the hospital. Here, they did a computed tomography scan and an X-ray and sewed up deep wounds on the back of my head and left ear. When I started to hear at least a little something, I felt other pain points in my body, namely, pain in my right leg, severe burning pain in the left side of the chest (I thought it was broken ribs, but it was a bruise and burns), severe pain in the area of the neck, back, right hand. In addition, a severe headache began, and I could not stand it. The tinnitus changed to ringing. I was given anaesthesia, after which, gradually, the headache started to decrease. Afterwards, when everyone got to the hospital and ensured everyone was alive and well, we could rest and recover from the event. But during that day, I couldn’t sleep; I closed my eyes and relived the event all over again. I was able to rest more or less normally only the next day.
Can you describe the consequences of the attack that you personally and the location experienced? What scared or saddened you the most?
The most important thing is that all our employees are alive and well after this enemy attack. A lot of our personal property was damaged, and one of our doctors had everything burned in his room: things, documents, clothes, etc. And what survived, we cleaned for several days. Clothes had to be washed more than once because everything was covered in smoke and soot. It was a pity to lose our warehouse with medicines. Everything burned: medical equipment, drugs, consumables. Everyone from our location made efforts to make this warehouse, somehow decorate it, and make our stay at this location more comfortable.
How quickly did your moral and psychological state recover? How do you feel now?
My mental state recovered the very next day. Even though the site team leader advised me to take a week or more off to recover, I refused. Already at two in the morning on September 2, I went to the call because I felt normal: my head did not hurt, and the pain from wounds, bruises, and burns did not.
Has the situation changed your attitude towards frontline work, and if so, how?
We survived a rocket attack. It was terrifying; words cannot express it. It is horrifying to realise, as it seemed to me in those seconds, that the ceiling is covering you with your head, and you can remain under the rubble. Then the thought flashed through my mind that this was all… the end. But we are strong people – we recovered, rested, discussed, recovered and continued to work. Such events will not stop me and my other colleagues from striving to provide medical care in the future.
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