Background
Daria Iholkina
The peace breathing
Photo print
16 x 16 inches
2021
(Original, medical mask, silicone, pigments, paper, acrylic frame)
This is a story about Ivan Gerus, a doctor who saves lives during the war.
Mariinsky Central District Hospital is one of the closest to the territory of Donetsk, which is not controlled by Ukraine. During the war in the Donbass, she survived many shellings.
"Our hospital is located in Krasnohorivka, it is a direct line of contact," says Ivan Gerus. - Due to hostilities since 2014, the building has been repeatedly damaged, so some departments have been transferred to the territory of Kurakhiv City Hospital. And our department is now located in the room where the maternity ward and gynecology used to be.
The hospital started working with co-patients in October 2020. At that time, the cardiology department of the Mariinsky CDH was reorganized to fight the coronavirus and treat patients with pneumonia.
“During the whole pandemic, more than 160 people passed through us, among whom 50 patients were confirmed by COVID-19 by PCR tests. But these figures are different from the real ones, because at the beginning of the pandemic the laboratories were very busy and the test results had to wait a very long time. And for two weeks of illness they just did not make sense to do. That's why there were a lot more people with COVID-19."
The largest amount of work with patients with coronavirus, according to the doctor, fell on the junior and secondary medical staff of the hospital.
“Older people usually suffer from advanced forms of coronavirus infection. Such patients come to us with some background: heart disease, obesity, diabetes, etc. That is, the person was already unhealthy and needed treatment, and here is a severe form of pneumonia. It was the case that a person had more affected lung tissue than unaffected. This is very difficult, because the patient, in addition to the drugs he usually takes, begins to take additional anticoagulants, hormones. These people require special attention and sometimes need outside help.”
"People in our city have suffered - very tired of the war and pandemic. There is no drinking water here - some people come to our hospital to collect water from special containers. Some are even happy to be sick because the hospital is warm here. It's just that not everyone has the opportunity to buy enough coal or firewood, especially in old age, especially single people. That's why we try to help everyone. For example, for "positive" people in the hospital there are always medicines and consumables."
Mr. Ivan had no choice but to be a doctor or not. After all, he grew up in a family of doctors. “Since childhood, I have looked at bookshelves with medical literature, studied these books and knew a lot of information from different fields of medicine. I always knew who I would be. And now I understand that I would not want another profession."
The doctor did not like working in the polyclinic as much as he does now in the hospital. “The hospital is closer to me. Because here I see the results of our work. When a patient is brought to you who can't breathe on his own, and after a while he comes out of you on his feet and is healthy, it's really inspiring.”
The material was created in cooperation with Transitions within the project "What's working: bringing innovative content genres and effective revenue generation methods to Ukraine" with the financial support of the US Embassy in Kyiv.
