He was at home in Lysychansk in eastern Ukraine that narrowed a little more than two weeks ago.
The fragments fed so quickly into the body of Svyatoslav Reichkov that at first the family did not find out what had happened.
Amidst the chaos that arose after the missile attack, the father of the 13-year-old rushed to the rescue of the neighbors.
The father thought that the neighbors were the most affected, but inside the house Svyatoslav was now swaying.
– I felt like my arm had fallen. After a minute, I felt pain. I cried to my mother: He says: “Mom, my arm is torn!” Svyatoslav Richkov to NRK.
Then it turned black for the boy.
Svyatoslav Rychkov has undergone several complex surgeries since arriving at the hospital in Lviv with his mother a little more than two weeks ago.
Photo: Charlotte Berglove/NRK
A new dark twist
Svyatoslav Rychkov gently raises his legs and looks at the sun. The rays dazzle the pale face.
In a sling, his right arm dangles dry, while he leans on his mother with the other.
The 13-year-old is outdoors and walking for the first time since May 9, when NRK met him at St. Nicholas Hospital in Lviv.
It is part of a bleak new development in the war-torn country.
War wounded children survived against all odds. But what future awaits them now they ask themselves in the hospital.
– Surgeon Andrei Dvorakevich in the hospital assures that he could have died from injuries.
Svyatoslav hopes his arm will be completely healed so that he can play volleyball again.
Photo: Charlotte Berglove/NRK
dangerous escape
When Svyatoslav shouted that his arm had fallen, Olena Rechkova ran to her son.
– I reacted immediately. I grabbed him and saw that the windpipe was open. blood flow. When I heard the breath, I understood it was about seconds, Olena told NRK.
The doctor asserts that had it not been for her experience as an emergency nurse, the minutes that followed would have been fatal.
The mother managed to stop the bleeding and got a friend who could take her to the hospital. They only had enough petrol, but when they arrived, the hospital was under complete evacuation.
An influx of patients and staff from the building. It was too dangerous to stay.
Ukrainian soldiers helped Svyatoslav on a train with a serious injury. They explained that the injured were to be transferred to hospitals in the far west of the country. to safer areas. But there was no place for the mother on the plane.
The soldiers said that the boy had to travel alone.
“I will not leave my child”‘ said Olena Rychkova and rushed to herself. Two days later, they arrived at the hospital in Lviv.
Svyatoslav shares a room with a 12-year-old boy who wakes from anesthesia while visiting NRK. He was also badly injured in an attack.
Photo: Charlotte Berglove/NRK
After May 9, they did not hear from Svyatoslav’s father, Olina’s husband. They do not know where he is, is he alive, and do not contact him.
All they know is that their house is now in ruins.
I’ve never seen this kind of injury before
Doctors in the hospital discovered fragments in the lung and liver of Svyatoslav.
Getting them out of the boy’s body was urgent.
– It’s terrible and A whole new experience for us. Even though I have 25 years of experience, this is a whole new period for me.
Experienced surgeon Andrei Dvorakevich has never before experienced the treatment of war-disfigured children on a daily basis.
Photo: Charlotte Berglove/NRK
Andrei Dvorakevich heads the Department of Surgery at St. Nicholas Hospital.
He explained that without the help they are now receiving from experienced foreign doctors from war zones, they would not have been able to save many lives.
I had to amputate my leg
An ambulance rides in front of the hospital. A mother and daughter in a wheelchair. Little boy walking around in the back.
We get to know them quickly.
Photos of 11-year-old Yana Stepanenko and her mother, Natasha, roamed the world.
This picture of Yana Stepanenko really becomes a symbol of war brutality when NRK visits the hospital where they are being treated.
Photo: Emilio Morenatti / AP
They traveled with Yana’s twin brother Yarik to the train station in Kramatorsk on April 8 to escape the war. While waiting to board, Russian troops attacked.
“Mom, I’m dying,” Yana screamed.
When the mother regained consciousness, she saw her daughter with her legs dangling, now without feet. The blood was everywhere, and the mother soon discovered that her legs were not where they should have been.
Only Yarick, who was fixing his bags some distance away, was full.
The plane’s alarm mentions that war can strike them again
The family shared their story with the world in the hope that they could help stop the war.
But doctors say that children and new adults who have been wounded by the war constantly come to the hospital in Lviv.
Photos of 11-year-old Yana Stepanenko, her twin brother Yarik and mother Natasha have roamed the world.
Photo: Emilio Morenatti / AP
– I hope the war will end soon, because this is not normal. The doctor says that young children have such injuries for life, it is very difficult to watch.
But there are little signs of victory for Ukraine at first, and patients are constantly reminded that they are not safe here in the West either.
When NRK leaves the hospital, the plane alarm goes off again.
Doctors at the St. Nicholas Hospital in Lviv were shocked by the damage that civilians were now causing, and hoped that the war would soon end.
Photo: Charlotte Berglove/NRK
We have to look for shelter in the nearest basement, but the ideas go to the kids there on the fifth floor.
Kids who can no longer run into the bomb room by themselves, have already suffered what this plane alarm could entail.
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