The biggest problems in eliminating the consequences of yesterday’s rocket attack on Poltava yesterday were poor quality turnstiles and the lack of training of local medics. This opinion was expressed by Igor Tkachev, a volunteer medic with the Hospitallers battalion, who was directly involved in rescuing the victims. He wrote a post about this on Komersant ukrainskyi
According to the doctor, he lives very close to the impact site, so he and his partner were on the spot very quickly to provide assistance.
“We were the first to arrive – the ambulance hadn’t arrived yet, only the SES car. There were several bodies covered in blood near the gate,” he recalls,
– he recalls.
“Gospitaler describes the chaotic situation when the wounded were loaded into an old ZIL using improvised means in an attempt to save their lives.
“There was a huge old ZIL in front of us, and they were just loading the wounded into it. They put them on rags, blankets, doors, lifted them almost above their heads and threw them into the boot. I didn’t even have time to see what happened to them. When I arrived, I just helped to load the last wounded. There was no more room, the doors were closed, and the ZIL drove across the city to the hospital, packed with dying people.”
– Tkachev writes.
However, the most important thing, according to the volunteer, is that many of the victims could have been avoided, but the number of deaths was significantly increased by poor quality turnstiles.
“Unfortunately, the volunteers and the command of the medical forces seem to have killed more people in Poltava yesterday than we were able to save. Poor quality turnstiles were everywhere, and it seems that only we had the original certified ones. They brought a wounded man with a turnstile, but the turnstile was Chinese, and it was impossible to tighten it. We applied our own, but they quickly ran out. When he shouted: “Give me a tourniquet,” they gave me a Chinese one, and I was dying inside with these people whom I knew how to help, but could not because someone, not even an enemy, decided to kill them with Chinese shit,”
– tkachev writes.
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Another big problem, he said, was the lack of training of the medical staff who came to help:
“The second sad conclusion is that almost no one knew how to provide assistance. Some people were putting on tourniquets, Chinese ones, not screwing them all the way through, but at least they were doing something. But there were very few of them. I gave my tourniquets, and people did not know what to do with them. The doctors who arrived were young girls with long nails, screaming, shaking and not knowing what to do, confused. They were just loading heavy, convulsing, dying people into cars, and they were confused. I didn’t see any turnstiles or any organisation of the process, nothing. They were not prepared for this.”
Similarly unprepared, medically, were the employees of the State Emergency Service, the volunteer said.
“I didn’t see the SES except for carrying the wounded, most of them couldn’t help us, I didn’t see any first aid kits either, maybe some of them were applying those Chinese tourniquets, I don’t know.”
– tkachev writes.
Calling for help, the doctor notes that the Poltava State Emergency Service needs high-quality turnstiles and first aid kits, as well as financial support for the re-equipment of evacuation vehicles. The link with the details for donations can be found in the comments to his post.
As reported by , on 3 September 2024, the Russian armed forces fired two ballistic missiles at Poltava. The enemy hit the building of the Institute of Communications and a hospital. According to the latest reports, 53 people were killed. Last night, President Zelensky reported 271 wounded.