Medical workers report on severely wounded patients after Belarusian protests

11 August 2020, 02:26 | TUT.BY
Source: Vadim Zamirouky, TUT.BY

Workers of Minsk-based hospitals told TUT.BY about patients with severe injuries who had been transported to their hospitals in the evenings of August 9 and 10. The medical workers said they were shocked that it could happen in a time of peace. “We have never dealt with such injuries,” the doctors said and they insist that the violence should be stopped.

On the night of August 9 to 10, a patient with a bullet wound in the intestine was admitted to the 4th hospital. He also had a damaged ureter, apart from which the doctors recorded splinter wounds to the ribs. According to one of the doctors, two rubber bullets were removed from the patient. He was born in 1982.

The person was admitted to the hospital being conscious. He told the doctors that he was shot from a distance of 10 meters. At the moment it is known that he is in a medically induced coma on artificial ventilations of lungs.

Another patient of Hospital 4 had an open traumatic brain injury and brain contusion. He was hospitalized at night between August 10 and 11, when protests in Minsk were underway. A medical worker who wanted to stay anonymous said that the patient underwent a few urgent surgeries including cranial trepanation and hematoma removal. Specialists of the Republican Research and Practice Centre of Neurology and Neurosurgery were involved. The patient was born in 1991. 

At the time of admission, the person had a cerebrospinal fluid coming out of his ears. He is more or less stable at present.

The information was confirmed to TUT.BY by another doctor, according to his information the patient got injured by a stun grenade. The man was urgently transferred from the 4th hospital to the Republican Scientific and Practical Center of Neurology and Neurosurgery. 

Medical workers also said that a 32-year-old man was transported by people in the street to an emergency hospital near the Pushkinskaya underground station. The person had his right foot injured and his right shin burned by a stun grenade. Unfortunately, the foot could not be saved and was amputated. 

Over the course of two days, several patients were admitted to the military hospital where the center of a gunshot injury is located, says a doctor who is familiar with the situation in this medical facility. According to him ,mainly people with shrapnel wounds and damage to the chest are hospitalized there. TUT.BY couldn’t get a hold of the military hospital to officially confirm this information. 

A medical worker from Minsk’s Hospital 2 said about a patient with an explosive injury of the chest, a torn-off finger phalanx, and a head injury. The patient was admitted at night between August 9 and 10. 

“We are obliged to grant medical aid to all the people. But no such things should happen in a time of peace,” the doctors said. “We do not want people to die or get injured. Doctors are unable to work normally after seeing all these. It is horrible. We demand that the violence should be stopped.”